Seeds of Hope
by eliteElite
Summary: The second war is finally over, but Kira and Lacus realize there is still much to do to ensure a stable and peaceful future for all. Both have many responsibilities and trials ahead of them, but together they've agreed to meet any challenge head on.
1. Prologue

**Alright! It's been a while since I wrote, and I just finished re-watching Gundam SEED I couldn't help but feel my imagination hamster running in his wheel! **

**This'll take place in the end of Destiny, where Lacus becomes the PLANT Chairwoman and Kira becomes a ZAFT Commander. It'll pretty much just focus on their relationship developing as they adapt to their new lives and responsibilities. But don't worry; I'll try to include everyone as much as I can.

* * *

**

It had been a full month since the end of the second Bloody Valentine War. It had been a month of fear and hope. It had been a month of uncertainty towards the future, but a promise as to a bright one. A month of terrible grief as the many that had died were mourned by there loved ones, yet a month joyous celebrations as the fighting was finally halted.

So as it was for these reasons Kira found himself wondering whether he was happy or saddened that the month had ended. But at feeling an arm wrap around waist and give him reassuring squeeze, he turned to his right to see Lacus staring at him with those great amazing baby blue eyes of hers, giving him a smile.

"My, my Kira, you sure seem to be lost in thought." she said in her harmonious voice, "Something on your mind?"

Kira returned the smile, melting inside at the sound of her voice. Truly, he thought, that he was luckiest man alive.

"Nothing too really to worry about." he said "Just wondering if I'm happy the vacation is over or not."

Well, it wasn't really a vacation. The first three weeks had been filled with preliminary peace talks and negotiations, military reorganization, salvage and repair, casualty estimates, and much mourning. Indeed, there were plenty of tasks to keep everyone busy, and time to shed a great many tears. The only reason it could be a vacation at all was because Kira and Lacus had taken a brief reprieve for 5 days at Reverend Malchio's orphanage where the two lived during the time between the first and second war. Of course at first they resisted going at all, but when nearly the whole Clyne Faction gathered up and pretty much forced them to, they reluctantly agreed. Everyone saying they were to nice for they're own good, and everyone needs a break.

"Indeed." Lacus agreed, "I will certainly miss the children, but I know they could not be in better hands. Though I'm happy as well with the fact we are returning. To think we will once again help mankind proceed to a better future."

"You so more then I." Kira said, considering the position she was receiving.

"Now Kira don't say such things!" Lacus admonished, smacking his arm lightly, "You sell yourself to short! After all, none of this would even be happening now if it weren't for your efforts during both wars! Where would Cagalli be, forced into marring that Yuna character? Or Athrun, still blindly following Chairman Durandel? You may not realize it Kira, but in the end we all rallied around you, myself included. Perhaps even without you, we would still be fighting the _first_ war."

Kira couldn't help but blush at that.

"Certainly-" Kira began, before being cut off right away.

"Ah ah ah! No buts!" Lacus said, waving her finger admonishingly before he could demean himself, "Besides, your position is just as important in many ways."

She then took her arm off his waist, and hooked it in his arm and gave him a playful look before continuing.

"Besides, I'm going to need a 'go to' guy I can trust to get things done in a proper manner!" She finished with a wink.

Kira felt better, of course when Lacus was around Kira always felt better. She just had that effect on him. He looked at the letters on his lap, which they had received at the beginning of their 'vacation'. One for them both, each requesting if they would fill a high position in the PLANT government. Chairwoman of the supreme council of the PLANTs for Lacus, effectively making her the nation's leader. And a Mobile Fleet Commander of the ZAFT forces for Kira. They had thought long and hard during they're stay at the orphanage about the positions and if they would accept them or not. But on the fourth day, they made up their minds and sent their reply to the PLANTs agreeing to accept the positions. The morning after on the fifth day they had already gotten excited replies, telling her that preparations were being made immediately.

They were now on the sixth day, and were currently onboard a shuttle launched from Orb heading back toward the PLANTs, to their duties, to their home. They had changed their lives forever, but they also believed they changed their lives for the better. Nonetheless they had a daunting task laid before them.

"I must confess to being nervous though." Lacus said softly, placing her head on Kira's shoulder, "The responsibilities we will be undertaking are simply enormous, it certainly will be difficult at first."

Kira leaned his head against hers reveling in her soft pink hair and breathing the wondrous smell of berries and carnations, he closed his eyes and let out a small sigh.

"Yes it certainly will…" he quietly agreed, before brightening considerably, "But hey, at least you got an edge! Being a pop star sure got you used to huge crowds, and public speaking and that sort of thing right?"

"That's true." Lacus stated, "I can't imagine it's like for you though, you'll be thrown into the public eye now when your official swearing in ceremony is done. To think of my shy and loving Kira talking to thousands of people, millions really, as it will be broadcasted everywhere."

Kira knew she didn't mean to sound like she was teasing him, still though; the image of it in his mind was already making him feel like his stomach was doing back flips. But he was more then willing to do it if it meant a better world for all and staying by Lacus's side.

"Well at least I'll only have to do it once, after that I doubt I'll be making regular speeches, that's what regular government officials are for after all, not military personnel.", Kira said before continuing, "It wouldn't even be so bad if you weren't there, because I bet any money a huge amount of people will intentionally go to my ceremony just to see you rather then me."

"You'd you prefer if it I weren't there?" Lacus said, putting on a fake frown.

"No! No, of course not!" Kira said quickly and apologetically, "In truth I'm very much relived your going to be there. I'd rather speak in front of fifty thousand people with you rather then fifty people without you. You're going to be my confidence on that stage to be sure."

"Aw, you're so sweet Kira." Lacus cooed while cuddling a little closer to Kira, "I'm truly lucky to have you in my life, I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Lacus…" Kira softly said.

"And besides…" Lacus continued, "After the ceremony don't think you won't have any fans either, especially considering your entrance on the elevator. Many may come just to see me at first, but as soon they see the Freedom rise up on the elevator platform behind the stage, I'm sure people will be to busy sputtering in disbelief and quickly forget about me. 'Freedoms Pilot' is a common conversation topic around the world, especially in the PLANTs. Everyone knows how you saved many lives at Operation Spitbreak, or how you shot down most of the nukes aimed at the PLANTs by putting yourself in between them, or even how you recently exposed Durandel's deception and help destroy Requiem."

"You make it sound as if I did those things alone." Kira pointed out.

"Yes, you didn't do all of them alone", Lacus replied, "But you always led the charge Kira, and did far more then your fair share of the fighting. You may not realize it, but you are symbol of hope amongst many."

Once again, Kira blushed deeply; he was not used to so much flattery, let alone the sheer magnitude of the aforementioned flattery. He couldn't help but momentarily think that it was only possible not because of whom he was, but _what _he was…

"_No…_" He thought, his face turning serious as he turned away, clamping his eyes shut and taking in a sharp breath, "_I will not let that bother me, not now._"

Of course this did not go unnoticed by Lacus.

"Kira…" Lacus said softly, reaching out she put he caressed his cheek while simultaneously turned his head back toward her, "The only reason anything has turned out that way it has is because you are who you are Kira. Your origins may have given you the power to do all the things you done, but it's the fact that you are your own person, that you are Kira, that you have done the things you have done. No matter what, they are your still your achievements, your victories. You have done great things, but it doesn't mean you're just a weapon, you're anything but."

Kira put his free hand over Lacus's on his cheek and held it there to reassure himself and let out a deep sigh, opening his eyes and smiling as he did so.

"Thank you Lacus, as always." Kira said gratefully, touching his forehead to hers, both sighed and enjoyed the moment. He always forgot that little pep talk, good thing she was always around to remind him.

He skimmed over the letter again, somewhat disappointed with some little facts.

"We'll barely even see each other for ten days once we arrive; we're certainly being thrown into the mix." Kira stated, "Your pretty much the Chairwoman already, they're already asking you for opinion and approval of numerous things. You haven't even been sworn to office yet."

Lacus merely sighed and nodded, Kira looked over to his letter.

"ZAFT etiquette, procedure training, chain of command, mobile suit team organization, team selection, fleet logistics, officer reviews…" Kira could have gone on and on with the list, "I haven't been officially sworn in either, but already they're calling me 'Commander Yamato' and the 'Yamato team'. All this official business sure is going take some getting used to."

"It's really not difficult." Lacus replied right away, "You'll get used to it."

Kira nodded in agreement, she was probably right, it would just eventually become second nature. Considering the nature of their new professions, we wouldn't be surprised if it was already second nature by the time they took their respective oaths. They would be talking to god knows how many people in these next ten days, Lacus more so then he. And no doubt she was also going to be surrounded by many younger men attempting to make passes at her, and he couldn't stop himself from feeling protective of her.

"You're certainly going to be surrounded by many people." Kira tried to say evenly, while hiding his worried tone, "A lot of guys will be gunning for your hand."

"I won't accept that!" Mr. Pink suddenly said, bouncing around their room as ever.

"Don't you worry about that one bit." Lacus said grinning at Mr. Pink's actions whole giving Kira's hand a gentle squeeze, "I really won't be around that many people our age Kira, mainly just older council members. I may meet a few of their children, and all the soldiers will be on duty and won't be able to talk with me without being reprimanded by their superiors."

"Well I'm not really worried, but I still can't help but protective of you. You're the most important thing in my life Lacus; I honestly can't see where I'd be right now if I didn't have you with me."

"Well if it makes you feel any better Kira, I've got a plan to end all that. I'm not really a fan of all that unwanted attention, after all I got all the attention from the one person I'll ever need right here."

"Really? What's this plan?"

"It's a surprise! Though I will tell you it's a very simple plan, but I'm sure it'll be very effective."

"A surprise? Well I'm sure you've got it handled."

"I think you'll like it." Lacus finished.

With that line of conversation depleted they had a short quiet moment and simply enjoyed each. Lacus thought about her surprise, for she knew it would be terribly embarrassing, but she had already made up her mind to do it. She indeed thought at first of telling Kira, but he was better off not knowing. He had enough to worry about already. Kira on the other hand, thought about the surprise himself. Despite his burning desire to know, he'd play along with Lacus for now. Closing his eyes, he once again rested his head on top of Lacus's and breathed in her fantastic hair and enjoyed her presence.

When he opened his eyes again he looked out the shuttles window seeing the rough outline of the Earth, shrouded mostly in darkness as the sun was behind the planet. That also meant that it was just turning to nighttime in Orb considering their late departure time. Thinking of Orb made him think of his sister.

"What do you think Cagalli and Athrun are doing?" Kira asked abruptly.

"Both are likely still neck deep in paperwork and negotiations no doubt." Lacus said, "I would say that they should take a break themselves, but they really seem to be thriving in their work more then anything, especially Cagalli."

"Yes she certainly has thrown herself into her work hasn't she? She seems to actually be really enjoying it, despite how tough it is. She's really become a more self assured leader then she was at the beginning of this war, I'm proud of her."

"And who do have to thank for that self assurance hmm?" Lacus said, prodding Kira's side with her elbow.

"I only rescued her from a terrible mistake; I had nothing to do with her self assurance, I humbly pass that credit to Athrun."

"Perhaps…" Lacus said simply with a smile, Kira was simply too modest sometimes, but she wouldn't change that for anything.

Though suddenly Lacus unhooked her arm from Kira's and then wrapped both her arms around neck in a tight embrace. Kira suddenly caught off guard, was stunned for a second, wondering were this suddenly came from. But he simply closed his eyes and returned the gesture by wrapping his arms around her waist and squeezing slightly. Coming to the conclusion that not all things needed a reason; hugs were hugs, and he wasn't about to refuse or question one from the person that meant everything to him!

When Kira finally opened his eyes, he saw bright light washing in through the shuttles window.

"Look…" said Kira softly to Lacus, gesturing to the window.

Lacus let go of Kira and looked out the shuttle window and smiled, enjoying the view as the sun was revealed from hiding behind the Earth. The clouds in the atmosphere glowed orange and red, the clouds shifted in the Earth's sky, looking almost like a giant lava lamp. Large quantities of light were reflected off the oceans, as well, some light reflected off the moon, and given its surface it gave off a bluish grey shine. With the sun burning bright in the background and the million stars twinkling all around, it made for quite the vista.

"Beautiful…" Kira breathed out, "You know, every time I've ever been in space, it was always because I was needed to fight. I never really had the time to appreciate the scenes."

"Well we'll make sure everyone has that chance, right? Lacus said, turning to Kira.

Kira smiled even bigger then he already was, and decided to quote one of the people had learned much from and respected greatly.

"We have the power to make difference right?" Kira said, lowering his head to hers.

"Then let us put it to good use." Lacus finished lovingly, bringing her head to his.

The sealed their words with a kiss.

* * *

**Holy Crap! Did I write that? It's hard to believe, since nothing died. I'm one more for war stories myself. Romance writing is… different for sure. I didn't think I was capable of writing anything with fluff; this is almost as fluffy as my kitten!**

**Anyway, a short prologue chapter, in the first real chapter they'll arrive in the PLANTs and organized chaos will begin!**


	2. Arrival

**Well this took me all week, with not a moment to soon as it is officially Friday in about an hour… well… in my time zone anyway. Lucky you! Or unlucky you… damn time zones eh? Well anyway, it's story time now, so without further ado!

* * *

**

The shuttle trip was finally over; it had taken a full five days for the shuttle to reach PLANTs, five days which Kira and Lacus had pretty much spent mainly together in relative solitude, with brief check ups on them from the shuttle attendants. Lacus had been on a small computer tablet, replying to messages sent from PLANTs asking for her approval on the preparations being made for her inauguration, and Kira's swearing in ceremony. Lacus had no idea how many times she sent back simple messages saying 'looks good' or simply 'yes'. The council was setting up things rather well, so rarely did she have to change anything. Though she tried to leave suggestions when she could think of them.

Kira likewise was doing much the same, reading about official ZAFT business and whatnot. He had already memorized simpler things such as ZAFTs chain of command, the numerous protocols, and even his expected conduct. On the other hand, they had also began sending him things like equipment transfer forms and requests to give instructions to his fleet! He was completely flabbergasted as how to respond to those messages, he hadn't even seen his fleet yet. He had no idea what he should be telling his forces to do yet, let alone know who or what he was commanding!

But finally they had arrived at Aprilius One, and were just beginning their final docking procedures now.

"_Coming about._" The captain announced over the PA.

Kira looked out the window, and saw the maw of the docking hatch briefly as the shuttle came around to back in.

"_Firing breaking jets_." There was a slight jolt as turning velocity was suddenly eliminated, "_Firing forward thrusters for two second burn._"

The ship rumbled slightly as engines fired shortly, and gave them a minor amount of backward momentum, easing them toward Aprilius One.

"_Entry Vector looks good, disengaging breaking jets. Switching control to electromagnetic bucket._"

As the shuttle was eased into the docking bay, the great bay doors slowly closed until they finally slammed shut. Sealing the shuttle into Aprilius One.

'_And sealing us to our fate in a way_…' Kira thought philosophically as a loud 'CLANG!_' _ran through the vessel.

"_Docking Clamps engaged, atmosphere cycling into docking bay. Equalizing pressure… Pressure equalized. Secondary checks confirmed all green across the board; the docking bay is safe, inner bay airlock doors opening for reception parties. Standing by to receive boarding plank._"

Kira and Lacus peered out the shuttle's boarding door window and watched as the steel plank crawled towards the shuttle, they also noticed a few people shuffling into the bay. Likely their reception party, both thought. Finally the boarding plank mated with the shuttle, and the Captain made his final announcement.

"_Boarding plank received, it is now safe to disembark the vessel._" The captain finally announced.

Kira saw as a green light above the door he and Lacus were waiting in front suddenly winked green, Kira keyed the opening button and there was a slight hiss as the doors seal was broken.

Lacus turned to him a grabbed his left hand in her right one.

"Shall we go?" She asked sweetly, smiling.

"Of course." Kira replied simply, returning the gesture.

And with that they flew down the plank and into the harbor proper. Lacus leading the way, her hand fully entwined with his. Kira flew along behind her, grasping both the small duffle bags that carried their small amount of luggage in his free hand. Heading straight towards their reception party, the first thing either saw was bright silver hair.

* * *

Yzak Joule fidgeted once again in the reception area, concluding this is the most uncomfortable he'd had ever been in his entire life. He didn't know how many times he smoothed out the wrinkles of his white ZAFT Commander's uniform.

"Relax Yzak." Dearka said calmly, standing proud in his dark purple command uniform signifying him as Yzak's right hand man, "You look like your expecting the devil himself to jump off that shuttle."

"Might as well be…" Yzak mumbled under his breath, "You know this is my going to be my first time meeting him Dearka. We may have fought side by side at the end of both wars, but I've never actually spoken a word to the man! I don't even know what he looks like other then 'messy brown hair with violet eyes'!"

"That's not true; you warned him and Athrun that GENESIS was about to fire in the first war."

"It's not like we had a conversation or anything, he didn't even respond! I vaguely remember his voice from when he saved me at Alaska, but that's as far as our interactions have gone! I'd hardly consider that speaking to him."

Dearka just sighed at Yzak's obvious nervousness, and tried to put his friends fears to rest.

"Well I already told you Yzak, he's no one for you to be nervous about." Dearka said, trying to calm his best friend down, "He's pretty similar to Athrun in a lot of ways."

"Oh that's just **fantastic**!" Yzak growled out through clenched teeth, "I can't **wait **then!"

"Okay, maybe not the best comparison ever. But he's a really nice guy Yzak, just look at his fighting style; he doesn't kill **anyone **if it can be helped. Surly that speaks volumes about his character."

"You don't understand Dearka." Yzak simply stated.

"Surely you still don't have a grudge against what he did to you in the first war Yzak!"

"No! Of course not! I'm not the fool I was back then!"

"Then I don't see what the problem is!"

Yzak just glared at his companion.

"Like I said before Dearka." Yzak said, "You don't understand."

Dearka rolled his eyes and shrugged, deciding to just stare just stare out the window. He watched as the great grey coloured shuttle eased back into the docking bay, and watched as the vast expanse of space was sealed away by the bays giant doors. Huge vents opened up on the ceiling and filled the docking bay with life giving air, once enough atmosphere had been brought in and the pressure equaled out. A small chime sounded, as well as the door light switching from red to green, to signify that it was now safe to enter the docking bay.

"Let's not disappoint shall we?" Dearka said, looking at Yzak.

Yzak simply let out a resigning sigh, and replaced the scowl on his face with an impassive military look.

"Come." He barked at the two soldiers he brought with him to act as security guards. They were pretty young as well, only a year younger then they were. Then again, most of the ZAFT military was young when the recruitment age was only fifteen.

The guards immediately fell in behind the two and they then proceeded into the docking bay at a brisk pace, stopping at the end of the docking plank. It was currently extending to meet with the shuttle and allow its special cargo to exit.

"Personally…" Dearka began, eyes following the boarding plank as it crawled out toward the shuttle, "I'm more nervous to meet Lacus Clyne herself, and I'm sure the boys here are to, right men?"

"Yes sir!" Both soldiers said, nodding their heads vigorously.

Dearka knew it was a mean thing to say to younger men, he knew about Kira and Lacus from what Mir and Athrun had told him. He knew they didn't even have an ice cubes chance in hell to get to Lacus, but he couldn't help but be a dream crusher. That made him think back to his fist encounters with Miriallia… yeah… he was a dream crusher alright.

"Didn't you fight in the Clyne faction at the end the first war Dearka, how did you not meet her?" Yzak asked bluntly.

"I was on the Archangel the whole time Yzak; I never actually got the chance to talk to her or even see her in person. I heard her talk over the radio plenty though, if that counts."

"That'd be enough for me." said one of the guards.

"Quiet!" Yzak yelled at both guards, despite the other doing no wrong, "You guys just remember your roles as guards! Don't talk unless spoken to, and act according to protocol if you are spoken to, not a word more! I don't even want to see either of you smiling! Got it!?"

"Yes sir!" Both guards said somewhat meekly, faces going a little pale at their commander's outburst.

"Your already privy to a whole lot of information the supreme council does not want anyone knowing for at least the next twelve days! Anything you hear in the VIPs presence is **strictly** confidential, and if you tell anyone anything, there shall be consequences. You should be counting your lucky stars your even here at all." Yzak said in a steely but more even tone.

Finally the plank mated with the shuttle, and after a moment there was a slight hiss of the shuttle door breaking its atmospheric seal and then door swung ajar. The first thing anyone saw was Lacus Clyne standing in the door way looking over her shoulder, wearing one of her numerous white and pink dresses with her bright pink hair cascading behind and trademark golden clip on her brow. She the glided down the boarding plank easily in the null-G environment, hand tightly grasping the person she dragged behind her. A man wearing simple dark blue jeans, and a black shirt with an oversized collar and cut sleeves showing his red undershirt. There was a red strap on each forearm of his shirt as well a pair of straps on his chest the kept his shirt done up. He had a mess of brown hair and pair of duffel bags in his free hand. Once they reached the end of plank, Lacus grabbed the railing and arrested both of their momentum, since both her companions hands were busy.

"Ah, Commander Joule and Lieutenant Commander Elsman I presume?" Lacus asked.

"Yes Chairwoman Clyne." Yzak said, saluting as he did so, "We are to be yours and Commander Yamato's escorts."

Following Yzak's example, Dearka and the other two soldiers saluted as well.

"Now, now" Lacus said, "As of the current moment, me and Kira are still just civilians, there is no need for all the formality yet."

"I agree." Said Kira, poking his head out of Lacus's billowing hair, which in zero gravity was floating everywhere behind her. It did quite an effective job of obscuring Kira from view.

Yzak stiffened when he really saw Kira for the first time. Dearka wasn't kidding when he said he wasn't exactly terror inducing, but Yzak knew better. He knew exactly what Kira Yamato was capable of. Lacus tilted her head slightly to the side questioningly when he didn't respond right away, and Yzak immediately recovered from his brief reverie.

"It's part of our orders to call you by your selected positions." Yzak explained, "In order to more quickly integrate you in the short time ahead before it all becomes official."

"Surly we can put that on hold for one day Commander Joule?" Lacus asked sweetly.

"Like I said before, our or-" Yzak started say, before he was cut off by Dearka.

"Of course we can oblige Miss Lacus" Dearka said cutting off Yzak, "It's our pleasure."

"Thank you Mister Elsman." Lacus said gratefully, "And thank you both for coming down here to greet us, we certainly appreciate it. Don't we Kira?"

"Yes, of course." Kira said, floating out of Lacus's hair and coming completely into view. He also noticed how Yzak stiffened a bit further and referenced that for later before turning to Dearka and holding out his hand, "It's nice to see you again Dearka, it's been a while."

"Same here Kira, it's been too long really." Dearka replied while smiling, taking hold of Kira hand with his own and giving him a brief handshake, "But let's depart shall we? Our elevator awaits!"

"Of course." both Lacus and Kira replied at once.

At that comment Yzak and soldiers raised their eyebrows, while Dearka just smiled a little bigger. Lacus and Kira looked briefly at each other, then at the three perplexed individuals. Lacus put a hand to her mouth and muffled a giggle, while Kira simply grinned a bit. Taking Dearka's suggestion, Kira grabbed a hold of Lacus right hand again and vaulted toward the docking bay's airlock doors, while Lacus allowed herself to be towed along.

"Let's be off shall we?" Kira said.

Yzak, slightly flustered by Kira's outgoing demeanor immediately jumped after the two and Dearka and the guards not long after him. After they were through the door Yzak immediately took the lead.

"Please, right this way." he said politely.

Leading the two through the reception area and into the labyrinth of corridors towards the elevators, Yzak couldn't help but think about who was behind him.

'_Strikes Pilot…_' he inevitably thought.

The journey was mostly made and silence, with only a brief few conversations being exchanged between Kira and Lacus as she explained to him numerous things about the PLANTs as they came up. Eventually they arrived at the elevator room, which allowed for travel between the two sides of the PLANT and access to the docking facilities in middle section where they currently were. Normally the circular room that surrounded the sixteen elevators would be extremely crowded, with many people hustling and bustling about on various businesses. At this specific time however, the elevator room was locked down considering the nature of the important guests. The council was taking every precaution as proven by the numerous extra guards in the room, even when none of the elevators were currently active. Yzak triggered the door on the nearest and elevator and stepping aside and gesturing his arm towards its entrance.

"Please, step inside." Yzak asked.

After Kira and Lacus and the rest of their escort were in the elevator, Yzak stepped inside himself and pressed the decent button on the elevator. Not that it would really mean anything in space, going down specifically. But to simplify things during the construction of the PLANTs, one side had been designated the 'top half' of the colony while the other was simply the 'bottom half'. They happened to be going toward the bottom half, so he pressed the descending button. The glass doors closed and the elevator began to plummet at high speeds towards its destination a near 120 kilometers below.

'_Focus on details Yzak, focus on details_.' Yzak told himself in his head, '_You're just escorting two VIPs, nothing to get flustered over_.'

As soon as the elevator began to descend, Yzak triggered his ear piece radio.

"Commander Joule here." he said, "Confirming VIPs in elevator, beginning decent now. Arrival in approximately 15 minutes."

"_Roger that Commander Joule, the council is already waiting in the elevator reception room._" said a female ZAFT officer.

"Is Commander Yamato's transport ready?"

"_Yes Commander_."

"Good."

And just like that the brief exchange was over, so Yzak observed the room.

The guards stood at attention next to the lounge chair on the floor, while Yzak stood at similar attention in front of the elevator doors. Dearka stood at similar attention on the other side of the elevator lounge chair. While Kira and Lacus stood together at the curved end the elevator, clutching the side railings. Speaking light conversation, Kira still grasped the two small duffel bags in his hands.

After the first thirty or so seconds everyone began to feel slight tug of the PLANTs simulated rotational gravity began to take effect and pull him to the elevators floor, and tug slowly began to increase as the time went on. Yzak noticed as well that even as the gravity began to increase draw nearer and nearer to a full one G, Yamato still held onto the duffel bags in his right hand. He still held them the same way he did in microgravity, as if they weighed absolutely nothing. They obviously had some kind of weight now, surely at least two kilograms by now? He couldn't tell if his muscles were tensing to deal with the weight because of his long sleeved shirt. Perhaps he was just trying to show off to Lacus? Yzak resisted the urge to snort, not only was that hardly anything impressive, she obviously wasn't even noticing.

"Any second now…" Lacus said, turning toward the elevators edge and putting a hand on the glass wall.

Kira went to put both hands on the railing, but pulled his right hand back after smacking the duffel bags against the wall by accident. A muffled voice started emanating from one of the bags after it had hit the wall.

"We've got a problem!" the bag said.

"Oops." Kira simply said, and put the duffel bags down on the ground to put his now free hand on the railing, which Lacus promptly covered with one of her hands while, giggling as she did so.

"It appears you've woken Mr. Pink Kira, it'll be a while before he calms down again." Said Lacus while looking at Kira, "I wish I could let him out, but it's hardly the proper time or place to do such a thing."

"I won't accept that!" the bag said again.

"He doesn't seem to think so." Kira replied with a smile.

Yzak's mind meanwhile was put in slight disarray.

'_Well he wasn't showing off to her since he put the bags down, he forgot he was even holding the bags when he lifted his hand to the railing. Surely he would have noticed the weight! Plus those bags must be even heavier by now, yet he moved as if those bags weighed nothing more then a feather…' _Yzak thought, trying to find a suitable answer in his head, before stopping his own thoughts right in their tracks.

'_Yzak… you're obsessing over their __**luggage**_.' he scolded himself.

He looked at the two bags on the ground for a moment, one of witch was rustling and making noises, no doubt from that robotic pet of Lacus's. He decided to put this ridiculous train of thought to rest.

'_He's just stronger then he looks._' he told himself, '_That's it, that's all._'

With that final thought, light suddenly washed into the elevator, momentarily blinding everyone for a brief second. The elevator had now begun decelerating as it neared the bottom of the PLANTs central shaft; it opened up to reveal the small continent below in a breath taking sight.

Kira just let out a small gasp as he took in the sight for the first time, and Yzak couldn't help but smile a little in pride at the obvious magnificence of his homeland.

"Amazing…" Kira couldn't help but express, "It's so big… a wonder people can make such things at all."

"Yes I thought you'd enjoy the sight, it really is beautiful." Lacus said, putting an arm around his back and on his side and leaning her head on his shoulder, "It's a shame the last time you were on the elevator you were unconscious."

"Yeah…" he said simply, looking at Lacus, then back out at the man made continent.

At hearing that line, Yzak mind couldn't help but run away from his grasp again.

'_The last time you were on the elevator you were unconscious? What's that all about?_' he thought, '_I **hate**__ not knowing the whole story_…"

Of course, Yzak knew Kira had to have been to the PLANTs at least once before. He had to get the Freedom somehow, but perhaps Lacus had someone deliver it to him? Yzak resisted snorting again. He doubted that anyone but Kira and the engineers that built the machine had ever even sat in the cockpits chair, let alone fly it. He was the same with his machines, once it was his, no one else was allowed inside them unless necessary.

Yzak let out a sharp breath suddenly, slightly annoyed how his mind had ran off on him again. He mentally reached out and grabbed it, and held it an iron grip. The only two to notice his small huff was the two soldiers, who looked at him briefly. A glare made them look straight ahead again, as guards should. The thought of them made him feel slightly better though because they had no idea who Kira even was, he could only imagine how many questions were buzzing around in their heads. Most common likely being, 'Who the hell is this guy!?'

"So Dearka…" Yzak heard Kira suddenly say, "What have you been up to these past two years?"

Dearka grunted at first as it took a second for the question to process, he had obviously been lost in his own thoughts as well. Recovering, he then put on his typical Dearka grin.

"Oh, you know. Same old, same old." Dearka said patting his black officers uniform, "How about you two? You both kind of… disappeared after the first war, where'd you go?"

"We lived on a small island on the outskirts of the Orb union." Lacus said politely, "We lived at a small orphanage for war orphans there; we helped take care of them."

"Well can't say I'm surprised the two of you would be doing something like that." Dearka said, "It certainly was hard to keep to your privacy request Kira, I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to brag how I know who-"

"Dearka!" Yzak snapped suddenly with a frustrated look on his face, when Dearka looked at him Yzak nodded his head towards the two obviously very attentive soldiers. Eager to learn anything about the confusing situation they were in.

"Oh yeah!" Dearka drawled out slowly while turning to the guards, "You guys aren't allowed to know yet, a shame. Good thing you caught me there Yzak, I'm not sure how we'd get rid of the bodies after we'd killed them."

Both guards managed to not break their act and kept their impassive military bearing, though the blood seemed to drain from their faces a bit.

"Well thank you for respecting my request either way." Kira thanked Dearka, "It means a lot to me."

"Think nothing of it Kira." Dearka said, turning back to Kira, "Besides, after the next twelve days, I'll get to brag all I want!"

"I guess you will."

"You can bet on it! I can hardly wait!"

After that the conversation had pretty much dimmed out. Kira just continued to stare out of the elevator in awe, while he and Lacus talked about how beautiful it was.

After about five more minutes, the elevator had finally fully descended. It came into the central PLANT government building and went all the way to the bottom floor. Where it wasn't specifically a government building, but more of a transit hub for the spires elevators, the government sections of the building were higher up on the upper floors. When the finally reached the bottom they could already see the eleven other gathered council members, along with various extra guards securing the room. When the glass doors parted, the party in the elevator stepped out and was instantly greeted by the council.

"Ah, Chairwoman Clyne, it does my heart good to see you well." said Eileen Canaver.

"Yes, agreed." Spoke Ezalia Joule while smiling; looking at Yzak for a second, before turning back the special guests, "Again, we can't express our gratitude enough to both of you for accepting our offers. It means a lot not only to us, but all of the PLANT citizens as well, or at least it soon will, we haven't official announcement yet."

"Please, think nothing of it." Lacus said, modest and polite as ever, "Kira and I are more then happy to do it if it will help the cause of peace."

"If you like, we have rooms ready for you here in the government building if you'd like to drop off your luggage."

"That will not be necessary; Kira and I shall by staying at my estate here at Aprilius One."

"Chairwoman Clyne please understand that after the first war, your estate has become a museum of sorts." Eileen told her, "It's quite common for school children and tourists to take tours there."

"I'm well aware of that Miss Canaver; I was the one that set up that process after all."

"But Chairwoman Clyne, I must insist-"

"I'm sorry Miss Canaver." Lacus suddenly said very firmly which surprised everyone in the room, minus Kira, "I have not been to my own home in over two years, so I must insist myself. That is where Kira and I will be living, please understand."

Much of the council gave each other small looks and exchanged quiet mutterings, and then Eileen let out a small sigh before smiling at Lacus.

"Very well then Chairwoman Clyne." she spoke before continuing, "I can see you are definitely your father's daughter."

"Your words are to kind Miss Canaver." Lacus thanked, grateful that they did not push the subject.

"Some changes will have to be made to your security arrangement." said Ezalia all of a sudden, "But nothing overly difficult, Yzak will see to it, right?"

"Of course Councilwoman Joule." Yzak spoke while saluting his mother.

"Moving on from that, we would like to further discuss the details upon both your ceremonies. There is only so much that can be understandably conveyed through text messages, after all. Some things just need to be handled in person to get your point across correctly." Eileen cut back in.

"That we know only to well Councilwoman Canaver." Lacus said, giving a small yet sad smile, "To well indeed…"

"Please, follow us" Eileen said while walking away, "The council chambers are right this way, we can discuss these matters once we get there."

"Very well then, lead the way." Lacus replied politely, though she already knew where the chambers were, she'd been there many times before.

As the large party and its security began to move away from the elevator room and into the government building beyond, Kira and Lacus exchanged glances.

"So it begins." Kira spoke while smiling.

"So it begins." Lacus repeated, returning the smile.

* * *

After a little over three hours, all the ceremonies had been sorted and planned out, and all the final preparations were being set into motion. But the day was far from over, it was still only 1:00pm in the afternoon, and they had taken a brief half hour break for lunch.

"Well good to get that all out of the way." Kira said, "One thing crossed off the list already."

"Yes it is good to know, one less thing to worry about already." Lacus replied, before eating forkful of garden salad, "It is a shame that we must part for the rest of the day, but we must both attend to our duties."

"It's not all that bad, really. I'll see you later tonight after all; I just hope they won't ask me to start staying on base right away."

"I hope that as well."

Kira continued to eat his assortment of various sandwiches he had requested from the cafeteria waiter. Not that was really a cafeteria by any means in his opinion; he considered this likely to be the fanciest restaurant he'd ever been in his life, but that's what the Supreme Council members had called it. Widely spaced apart glass tables, crystal chandeliers, red velvet carpet, tuxedo clad waiters, pleasant music drifting out numerous speakers, let alone most of the items on the menu. It had everything as far as Kira was concerned, though he was hardly an expert on the subject. There was just nothing in the room that made the place a cafeteria at all!

They were pretty much all alone in the 'cafeteria' as well; the supreme council members had retreated back to their respective offices, saying they were attending to the smaller businesses of running their individual colony clusters. They were going to have their meals delivered to them, saying that they did this quite often and told the soon to be Chairwoman and Mobile Fleet Commander not to worry. The only reason they weren't completely alone was the various guards posted at the sides and entrance of the room. All staying ever vigilant and serious, most of the soldiers were very young as well, most likely being his age, if not a little younger or older. Kira found out rather quickly that they were experienced military police force units, judging by their demeanor and professionalism. They were also completely dressed in full blown battle regalia, from combat armor to assault rifles and tactical shotguns slung over their backs. Despite they're appearance though, they were far from stone statues; he found it rather humorous how whenever he made eye contact with any of the guards they immediately looked away, as if ashamed to be caught. He couldn't really blame them though, Lacus was in the room and here he was dining and making conversation with her as if he'd known her for years, which of course, he has. Kira felt as if he could **feel** the envy come off them.

He looked over at the doubled door entrance and saw Yzak and Dearka standing at either side, they're personal escorts. Dearka just stood loosely at ease, with a bored look on his face. Yzak on the other hand was standing ramrod straight and fidgeted slightly every here and there. Kira knew he was making the man feel uneasy for a while now, though exactly when he figured out he couldn't quite remember. It was likely his obvious tenseness and constant squirming that gave him away. As Yzak looked over the room he made eye contact with Kira briefly, but then his jaw suddenly tightened and he immediately looked away. Kira likely knew why he was making Yzak act this way as well.

Yes, there was quite obviously an elephant hiding in the room somewhere…

But this was not the time or place to address such an issue.

He was suddenly broke out of his thoughts when he felt cool water drops splashing against the side of his face. He looked at Lacus just in time to see her finish dunking her fingers into her water glass and quickly flick her fingers in Kira direction, firing off another salvo of water droplets and giggling as she did so.

"Hey! Lacus!" Kira complained. Not that he really was really upset; he got some of those beautiful Lacus giggles out of her after all.

"I was asking how you're enjoying your food, but you obviously preoccupied. So you forced me to take matters into my own hands, quite literally." Lacus said sweetly, while holding out her still wet hand for him to see.

"Well it's very good actually." Kira replied, "I must admit though, I didn't even know there was even a possible way to make sandwiches look so fancy, I'm honestly impressed."

"Well these people do serve our nations leaders after all, they do their best."

Kira took a bite of one his sandwiches, which just happened to be a chicken one, before starting up the conversation again.

"So what have they planned for you to do after lunch?"

"I'm going to go to my office briefly and get a look at it, so I can plan for later what changes I would like to make to it. After that I'll be brought up to speed on current events, from the negotiations all they way down to the… salvage… operations." Lacus said, somewhat shakily at the end with a sullen expression on her face.

Kira couldn't blame her; it was sore subject no one wanted to talk about, him included. By salvage operations she meant the resource extraction from the ruins of Januarius One and Two as well as December Seven and Eight. The former being destroyed by Requiem, while the latter were destroyed by the ruins of the formers when they smashed into each other. The only good news was Januarius Three and Four had managed to retain their positions because Requiem did not cut off overly large pieces of the colonies mass or hit their central spines, allowing them to keep their structural integrity and avoid collapsing altogether. Better yet, once half of each PLANT was compromised the emergency bulkheads in the midway station that held the ends together had slammed shut when sensors had detected the massive decrease in atmospheric pressure. Thankfully those emergency counter measures had spared the lives of over 500,000 innocent people. But what had happened was still a catastrophe far beyond the likes of even the Bloody Valentine tragedy, as over a million innocent lives had been lost.

"I see…" Kira said, while holding out his hand, "Lacus…"

"I'll be alright Kira." Lacus replied, grasping his hand tightly with her own, "I'll do what needs to be done, don't worry."

Lacus dispelled her sad thoughts, not comfortable about talking about it with so many people she didn't know around. She took a deep breath and then put on a bright smile, determined to enjoy her lunch with Kira. After she drew the subtle comfort she needed from him, she let go of his hand.

"So where shall you be going after this Kira?" she asked.

"I'll be heading to the military headquarters at the local base on this side of the PLANT, where apparently where I'm currently stationed." He stated, and then brightened up himself as Lacus had, "I was hoping for another elevator ride but I guess that's not happening. At least it won't get old to quickly when go on the elevator then; I'm sure before long it wouldn't become so amazing if I had to ride it everyday."

"What time shall you be finishing up for the day?"

"I'll be done at around 9:00 pm tonight, so I'll see you at around 9:30. You?"

"I'll be back at the house by 8:00, not that I'll be relaxing by any means. I'll have to make sure that certain areas of the mansion are off limits to the tours tomorrow morning, I'd rather not be walked in on while sleeping."

"That's a good idea; I'd rather not have you walked in on either."

"So you wouldn't care if someone walked in you while you were sleeping then?"

"Better me then you; you're the pop star here after all, not me. I don't think people would exactly be enamored that much by me if I was walked in on. You on the other hand…"

"Your protectiveness is simply adorable Kira." Lacus cooed at him, taking a sip of sparkling apple juice before continuing, "And though I might be considered a sight to behold by many men, you might be surprised at your standing amongst us ladies Kira."

"…Uhh…" Kira muttered, completely caught off guard by that remark, "…What?"

Lacus then started to full out laugh at him then, her joyous laughter was simply musical and heavenly in tone, truly the laughter of a goddess herself. It warmed his heart to see her laugh so, despite the recent revelation of a no doubt embarrassing story about himself.

"Yes you actually have quite the reputation amongst your lady friends." Lacus said, stifling her remaining giggles, "Miriallia told me that before the war came to Heliopolis, she used to torment her boyfriend all the time by always referring to you as 'The Sexy Devil' as it did quite a good job of flustering him. Apparently that became your secret nickname amongst many of the students there thanks to her, even if it was only the girls that really used it."

"Uhhm…" Kira said unsurely, not knowing what to say, "You can't be serious."

"I assure you that I am most serious Kira." Lacus replied quite matter-of-factly.

"No way."

"Yes way."

"There's no possible way a whole school could've hid that from me."

"Well us girls are very good at keeping secrets, and I'm sure the guys that knew your nickname weren't going to tell you for security reasons."

"I'm not sure if I'm flattered or embarrassed."

"Embarrassed, if your complexion is anything to judge by."

She was right on the bullet with that remark; Kira's face was absolutely flushed red from the unforgiving embarrassment that Lacus had just dished out on him. He knew Lacus wasn't lying, after all, why would she? He was also quite flattered, but that was what was making feel so embarrassed, in this case flattery and embarrassment might as well be the same thing!

"Well that's a hard story to swallow nonetheless, I wasn't even popular or anything." Kira said timidly.

"Oh it wasn't just at the school either!" Lacus kept on, loving every second of Kira's adorable shyness, "Even Miss Murrue said you were quite dashing."

"Jeez…" Kira said, hiding his face with his hands to hide his reigniting blush.

After a couple seconds, Kira cracked his fingers apart to look at Lacus who was laughing and giggling quite openly at him. He could only imagine what the guards thought they were talking about. Finally Kira took his hands off his face when his blush was mostly under control and put his arms on the table to lean on.

"That has to be the end of it, and even if it's not I don't think anything could be worst then what you've already told me." Kira said.

"I wouldn't be so sure I were you." Lacus challenged sweetly.

"Try me."

"That picture Cagalli's father gave her threw her in a loop more ways then one you know."

"…Oh god…" Kira's third blush likely disproved spontaneous human combustion, because he had turned so red in the cheeks it was a wonder he didn't burst into flames, "…**Wow**."

"I warned you." Lacus said musically, waving her salad fork at him.

"You warned me." he agreed, "Cagalli huh? That's… that's just…"

"It's really not that bad Kira, it's not like she said she loved you or anything, she just admitted your physically attractive is all." Lacus reassured.

"Right as always." Kira said, finally reigning in his blush for good, "I'll admit as well that Cagalli is attractive herself."

"How very mature of you."

"Of course I tell you that in good faith."

"I'm sure it would be no issue if she found out, I'm sure she'd be flattered just as you are."

"Well, she is a bit of a wild card sometimes. Despite being Orbs ruler, sometimes she just likes to show how she feels with her fists rather then her words."

"You worry too much Kira."

Soon enough they finished their respective meals so Lacus signaled for the waiter to come and retrieve the dishes. After the waiter had taken them and retreated from they're table did they resume their conversation. Lacus started by suddenly clasping her hands together while tilting her head to the side and gave Kira a dreamy look.

"Going back for a moment." Lacus began saying, "I must say I agree with all your friend's opinions of you. You are definitely a very attractive and beautiful man! I'm just glad that I was the one lucky enough to catch you in my net! Yes, a very pretty boy indeed!"

"My masculinity…" Kira replied in a sad voice, "Thou have gravely wounded it."

"Aww, I'm sorry Kira." Lacus said in a sad tone of her own, "Can you forgive me?"

"I think I can manage that." He smiled, his sad tone gone as fast as it had came.

* * *

After lunch had ended, Kira and Lacus had said some short temporary good byes and gone their different ways. Dearka had the orders to make sure security stayed tight around the PLANT parliament building, while Yzak would be escorting Kira to the local military base at Aprilius One. Currently Yzak and Kira were on an elevator to the lower reaches of the government building, where the numerous parking garages were. When the elevator doors opened they were on the level associated specifically for high ranking members of the ZAFT military. The room only had the capacity of about 40 vehicles, but it was surprisingly larger then it needed to be, the spaces were all highly spaced apart making access to all the vehicles rather simply. Under the logic that it was nice when you could open your vehicles doors without having to worry about it smashing into the side of somebody else's vehicle.

As soon as Kira stepped out of the elevator behind Yzak, he noticed a young woman around his age standing by a large limousine with ZAFT emblems on the doors. She had dark brown hair and purple eyes, she also wore the red coat of a ZAFT ace mobile suit pilot. She immediately saluted and came to attention when she saw Yzak step out of the elevator.

"Commander Joule sir!" the woman said, her voice echoing through the garage.

When Yzak and Kira had covered the short distance to the vehicle they saluted back, Yzak then returned his arm to his side and turned to Kira.

"Mister Yamato, this is Shiho Hahnenfuss; the ace pilot of my team." Yzak explained.

"A pleasure to meet you Mister Yamato."

Kira couldn't deny that this Shiho and he actually looked pretty similar in a few general ways. He had lighter brown hair then hers, his eyes being a similar shade lighter of violet instead of her stark purple ones. But other then those two items, that was pretty much where their similarities ended. She was definitely quite striking Kira concluded, and couldn't help but think that if had been born a girl instead, perhaps this is what he may have looked like.

"Please, step inside Mister Yamato." Yzak asked.

On cue, Shiho opened the door much like a butler would and both she and Yzak gestured for him to get in first.

"Thank you." Kira thanked politely, before getting into the limo.

When he entered he took a seat at the back, in front of the rear view mirror, and placed the two duffel bags he still had on the seat to his side. When Yzak and Shiho entered they took their seats at the opposite end of the vehicle, facing Kira.

"Aprilius One military base." Yzak spoke to seemingly no one in particular.

The limo suddenly began to move, and Kira instantly concluded it what was because the vehicle was completely automatic, like most transit systems were in this age. Kira had always preferred systems that you could drive yourself if you wanted like, the ones at Heliopolis. His friends used to think he was weird for that, but he just enjoyed the feeling of driving something himself.

Soon enough they arrived at the garages door, as soon as the bulkhead had opened the car sped off through a maze of underground road ways. After a few minutes light splashed in through the vehicles windows as they reached the PLANTs giant exterior environment. The windows automatically tinted to deal with the light, slightly overcompensating before evening out. As Kira looked out the window he could see an enormous web of over passes and road bridges running over and under each other, some filled with hundreds of vehicles, others barely containing any. Before long however they traveled into another car tunnel, barely after another minute had passed they emerged at the outer edge of the enormous man made mountain the surrounded the PLANTs central spire. They were briefly halted at a computerized security checkpoint; it let them pass without incident, and eventually the small two lane road they were on merged with a much larger and busier six lane road the spiraled down the mountain. Numerous vehicles were racing about on the roadway, smart navigation computers constantly communicating with each other to avoid accidents.

"It's quite a sight to behold isn't it, Mister Yamato?" Shiho asked him suddenly.

"It certainly is." Kira, replied, tearing his gaze off the passing scenery below and turning to Shiho and continued. "But please, miss...?"

"Shiho." She replied, "Shiho Hahnenfuss."

"Please Miss Hahnenfuss, call me Kira. I believe the formality can wait till after I receive my uniform at the very least. And after all, I'm still technically a civilian."

"Well if I'm to call you Kira then just call me Shiho."

"Okay Shiho, nice to meet you." Kira said while smiling, and held out his hand.

"I feel the same, Kira." Shiho replied smiling herself, she reached out and gave him a firm handshake.

"To think that this'll become a common sight." said Kira, once again peering through the window at the landscape below; a large city of tall buildings consumed the island around the spire. Past that lay large forested areas, interspersed between the dense areas of the city the stretched across much of the PLANTs surface. Sparkling lakes and rivers ran all around, and even a few boats were running about on the surface. The sky was just like sky back at earth, blue and filled with white puffy clouds. That impressed Kira more then anything else, thinking back when he lived on Heliopolis there wasn't really a sky at all, when you looked up you just saw the other side of the colony.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, Kira and Shiho made light conversation every here and there while Yzak remained silent and stoic. Kira busied himself looking out the window at the passing scenery, ogling at the large and well constructed city as they passed through it, and then the passing rivers and forests when they emerged from the cities heart. Eventually it came to an end after they arrived at the large military base at the PLANTs edge, which also just happened to be just outside a very large commercial and residential portion of the city.

"Aprilius One Military base." Kira said, reading the sign, "Not much of a name is it?"

Yzak rolled the window down and swiped his identification key through the card reader. When the bases large steel doors detected Yzak's authorization, they opened up to grant them entry and their car continued to roll in. As soon as they were inside the first thing Kira saw were numerous Zaku mobile suits, but most were inactive and standing empty. The ones that were moving patrolled the bases outer and inner perimeters, to scare off anyone foolish enough to try and sneak in on foot.

"We'll be heading straight to your fleet headquarters first." Yzak spoke for the first time since they entered the vehicle, "Once we get there you'll be given a brief overview of your command, after that we shall provide you a full tour of your base."

"**My **base!?" Kira said, eyes widening, "I know the topside base really isn't all that big, but I know the base is mostly underground to conserve topside space. Are you saying the whole base is mine, including the underground part?"

"Yes mister Yamato, that is correct." Yzak replied calmly, expecting the reaction, "You are a Mobile Fleet Commander after all, and an entire fleet requires extensive facilities for its equipment and personnel. My fleet base at Armory Two is very much similar to this."

"Approximately how many people are going to under my command Commander Joule?"

"A little under 50,000 soldiers, all together."

Kira had known he was going to be commanding many ships and soldiers, but being told the actual numbers was still quite something to hear. Once again he realized the enormity of the responsibility he had been given, that was a lot of people to look after and direct. He was confident he could do it though, if he wasn't he wouldn't have taken the job in the first place.

Finally the ZAFT limousine pulled to a complete stop and let out an arrival chime, and they exited the vehicle. Kira was greeted to the site of two familiar red coats that he only briefly met in Orb after the war. Both saluted as soon as he stepped out of the vehicle, and both had small smiles as well. In his surprise, Kira forgot to return the salute, not that he really had to quite yet anyway.

"Shinn?" Kira asked before turning to the other, "Lunamaria?"

"That's right Commander." Shinn said, letting go of his salute, "Bet you didn't think we'd be meeting again so soon, huh?"

"We're being stationed under your command, so without further ado…" Lunamaria added, and then threw her arms out in a 'Ta-da!' fashion, "Welcome to your second home commander!"

"Uhh… thanks." Kira said, regrouping himself, "I must say I wasn't expecting this."

"Glad we didn't disappoint then!" Shinn said brightly.

"Please mister Yamato, follow Shinn and Lunamaria." Yzak said, "I'll join you again shortly, but I have a loose end to tie up. You can leave your bags here as well; we'll be using the same vehicle to take you home tonight."

"Alright then." Kira responded, he put his bags back inside the vehicle and turned back to Shinn and Luna, "By all means, lead the way."

"Right this way Commander." said Lunamaria, and began to walk off.

After Kira had followed his ace pilots into the headquarters building, Yzak turned to his own ace.

"Shiho." He addressed, "I want you to get a company of military police and set up a security perimeter around the Clyne estate."

"The Clyne estate?" Shiho asked slightly startled, "Why?"

"Because that is where our special guest shall be living." Yzak replied nonchalantly, "It's water front property as well, and somewhat of a tourist destination, so I want the whole package. Armed patrol boats and foot patrols to circle the entire outer wall, I want motion and thermal sensor drops, security disguised as grounds keepers and servants, everything alright?"

"Of course sir, I'll get on it right away."

Shiho suddenly had a smile on her face, one that piqued Yzak's interests, and not in a good way.

"What are you so happy about all of a sudden?" he snarled at her.

"Just wondering who that guy is." She spoke, "Everyone seems to know but me it seems. I don't suppose you'd tell me?"

"No." Yzak stated flatly, "I'm under strict orders from the council to keep his identity secret."

"But I already know his name."

"You know what I mean Shiho."

"He must be someone special, he's certainly got you intimidated that's for sure. I've never seen you act so polite and meek."

"I was **not **meek!"

"Yeah he's got you riled up all right, which is weird considering how kind and good natured he is. You usually eat people like that alive."

"I'm a bit stressed out about some things right now if you must know why I'm 'riled up'. You happy now!?" It wasn't a complete lie, Yzak rationalized.

Boy was it ever entertaining to press Yzak's buttons, Shiho thought, and despite him being her superior officer she thought he was absolutely adorable when he was all angry and pouty. Time to press the advantage!

"He's quite the looker to; I think I'll take him." said Shiho.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up." Yzak snorted, "He is staying at the **Clyne** estate after all."

'_Well that backfired, so much for making Yzak jealous._' Shiho thought, _'Interesting information though._'

"Don't you have work to be doing?" Yzak scolded.

"Yes Commander." Shiho sighed while rolling her eyes, "I'll make sure the preparations are made immediately. Anything else?"

"No, that'll be all Shiho. I'll see you later."

"Good bye for now then."

Yzak walked toward the headquarters building while Shiho pulled out her military issued cell phone and began to make the calls that needed to be made. She saw Yzak stop at the buildings doors and take a deep breath and stride inside, Shiho couldn't help but shake her head at his cute antics. Sooner or later, she thought, he'd notice her advances.

* * *

Kira looked around his special office inside the headquarters building; it was quite grand in terms of size and general appearances, even if the room was completely empty of personnel effects. It was on the top floor of building, the room itself reminded Kira of a thrown room in a castle should look like. His desk was situated on top of a platform that took up the back third of the room and it was about three feet higher then the regular part of the floor. A path led straight from the door to the desk, there was a ramp that split to each side of desk, allowing easy access on both sides. The path itself was made with a checkerboard pattern of pearly white and onyx black marble tiles, while the rest of the floor was covered in a crimson coloured carpet. His desk was made of midnight black steel that was furnace blasted black rather then painted, to ensure the colour would never fade or chip. Its surface was adorned with an above average amount of built in computers and screens to display a plethora of items at once to allow him to multitask easier. Even his chair was covered with soft velvet cushions purple in colour, the chair itself just being a metallic silver colour. The entire back wall of the room was a giant bay window that granted him a 180 degree view of the entire base, allowing him to oversee all activities on the bases surface. His on base quarters were directly attached to his office on the right side. His quarters was actually more of an expensive multi-room hotel suite, similar in its lavishness to his office, if not more so.

"Well…" Kira said, sitting in his office chair with his hands on his desk. "I think this office maybe a bit… over the top, for my tastes."

"Whys that?" Shinn questioned from the lower level, "It's much like the other ones I've seen."

"Us lowly types don't get nice set ups like this." Lunamaria added, "But this kind of thing is common amongst the top brass."

"Seems a bit over the top to me" Kira replied, "I thought the PLANTs were all about efficiency."

"We are, but we're also about flare!" Lunamaria retorted with a wink.

Kira remembered the cafeteria back at the PLANT government building, where he and Lacus had lunch. Yeah, Lunamaria was probably right on the button there, and she had lived here her whole life here after all. The door then slid open and Yzak walked inside. He briefly looked around, and proceeded to address Kira as if the room itself was no hum.

"Are all high ranked officials' offices like this one Commander Joule?" Kira asked.

"More or less yes." said Yzak and observed the room again with a more keen eye, "I'll admit this is one of the better ones I've seen Mister Yamato. Marble is a rarity here in the PLANTs so that's rather impressive, and the raised platform for the desk is a subtle way to remind subordinates who's in charge."

"Great." Kira sighed, "The last thing I need is for people to think I'm egotistical."

"I'm sure no one will think anything of the sort Mister Yamato, offices like this are quite common." Yzak assured, slightly smiling at the site of Kira looking slightly awkward behind his desk. "But anyway, since you're comfortable I'll give you the brief of what your command consists of."

"That would be appreciated."

Yzak walked up the ramp and to behind the desk like Kira, he tapped a button on the side and a keyboard lit up the Desks glass like surface. He keyed away a few commands and then suddenly the lights in the room dimmed and a large three meter tall holographic projection of Aprilius one dominated the center of the room. Around the PLANT were numerous smaller shapes, obviously ships and repair rigs, which lazily circled the colossal space station. The images themselves were made by thousands upon thousands of neon green lines, emitted by projectors mounted at the corners of the rooms ceiling. A large list of stats scrolled down next to the image, allowing all in the room to ascertain the forces readiness levels.

"You'll have command over the newly reformed 1st fleet, which has approximately 48,968 soldiers, divided amongst your ships and your base. The base itself has a constant staff of about 4000 support staff, being mostly technicians, mechanics, and engineers. It is also where most of the infantry division under your command is, which has approximately 12,000 infantrymen in it which is further bolstered to 16,000 soldiers with its embedded support units. That's includes artillery and transportation personnel and such." Yzak paused for a minute, and then multiple icons outside the PLANT flashed, "Now for your fleet itself, which contains fifty one ships total. The bulk of your fleet, and all our fleets actually, is made up of thirty Nazca class destroyers and backed up by twelve older Laurasia class heavy frigates.

"You will also be assigned three special ships, the first of which is the _Eternal_, which really isn't so surprising considered it's a support ship built for your mobile suit. The second ship you'll have is the _Minerva_, which is currently undergoing extensive repair in dry dock, it won't be battle ready for sometime. The third ship you're getting is the _Arx_, which is the second ship of the Gondwana class super carrier."

"I can't say I'm familiar with that class" Kira stated, "I assume it's that giant green box of a spaceship?"

"Yes." Yzak fought the urge to glare, "That would be it."

"And it's the second of its class?"

"That's correct; the first is the _Gondwana _herself witch is currently the flagship for the fleet under my command."

"I'll review the technical specs in detail later, but you can you tell me a bit about them now?"

"Well it's not really much of a warship, more like a mobile base then anything. It's lightly defended for its size; it only has eight double barrel Tristans beam cannons, a dozen dispar intercepting missile launchers, and an extensive CIWS system containing 66 emplacements. It's not very maneuverable because of it's mass, the main reason it even has guns is just for light defense and long range fire support for its mobile suits. That said, the ships real power is its mobile suit complement, which has a capacity of 340 suits, and carries the facilities and parts needed to keep its suits maintained for months at a time in the field."

"Well then, with that little piece of information I gather that I…" Kira paused for a fraction of a second to run some numbers, "Have about 764 serviceable mobile suits with pilots at all times, with extra's I assume."

Yzak was startled at how fast Kira had done that, but then rationalized with himself that he had only done some simple addition and multiplication in his head, nothing fancy. But still, he thought, Kira had done it in less then a **second**! What was with this guy!

"Yes, that's correct actually." Yzak said, trying to keep his cool demeanor, "You have about 1100 suits all told. All of your suits, including the spares, are mostly varying types of Zakus. You also have about 200 GOUF ignited models and about 60 of the older suits, mostly GINNs for training purposes and menial labor tasks.

"That pretty much concludes your forces, unless you want to hear in detail about all your support and logistical units."

"No thank you." Kira said, holding up a hand, "I'll review all that later."

Yzak shut off the holographic projectors and returned to the room came back to its normal lighting. He went to the back to the door and stood by it, near where Shinn and Lunamaria were waiting quietly ever since. Those two pilots were also on Yzak's mind right now, as they obviously knew who Kira was. It had taken considerable willpower to not reveal his surprise when they recognized each other, which had at least spared him further ribbing from Shiho. How they met? Who knows, but they were a information leak that needed to be eliminated! Upon remembrance to the bad news however, a frown had unconsciously crept across his face, and somebody noticed.

"Is something wrong?" Kira's voice suddenly rang out, cutting into his thoughts.

"No!" Yzak said somewhat hotly.

The raised eyebrow Kira gave him instantly told Yzak that he had broken concentration and his cool demeanor had been exposed. He recovered quickly and recomposed himself, determined to salvage the situation.

"Uhh, no." Yzak repeated lamely, "I just thought of another loose end that needs to be tied up, is all."

Finishing that remark he glanced over at Shinn and Lunamaria briefly, barely more then a flick of the eyes. Kira suddenly got of up from his desk and went down to the lower level, looked between Yzak and his pilot aces curiously, then nodded his head knowingly as if everything made perfect sense.

"Shinn, Lunamaria." Kira suddenly addressed, "You haven't told anyone who I am, have you?"

That took Yzak completely off guard.

Shinn and Luna blinked, the seemingly random question taking a second to process before Luna answered.

"No, of course not!" Lunamaria defended, waving her arms in front her chest for emphasis, "We remembered your privacy request, don't worry. Not that people would likely believe us anyway…"

"But ever since we learned you were going to be our new commander we were kind of confused." Shinn added, "So we decided to wait until you got here before we started telling anyone anything."

"Well thank you for honoring my request, I'm grateful." Kira said, "But soon enough that will no longer be necessary, I've joined ZAFTs ranks after all, sooner or later someone would notice the Strike Freedom."

"So we can tell people?" Lunamaria asked.

"Not quite yet, but soon enough you will."

"What do you mean by that?" Lunamaria asked, confused by the statement.

"Soon enough the Supreme Council is going to announce the inauguration ceremony of Lacus as their Chairwoman, a few days after that will be a ceremony for me were my position as a Mobile Fleet Commander in the ZAFT forces will be made official. The council however is being all 'hush hush' as to who I am, as they want to me to be some big grand surprise for some reason. So you can't tell anyone about me okay? Not until after my induction ceremony."

"Yeah we can do that, sure." Shinn reassured, he then opened his mouth to ask a question but Kira cut him off.

"And you can't tell anyone that Lacus is going to be the Chairwoman to the PLANTs till after it's publicly announced two days from now, okay? Do either of you have any other questions?"

Both paused for a couple seconds to think about it.

"I can't think of anything." Shinn shrugged.

"I'm good." Lunamaria answered smiling, "Feels kind of cool to know some top secret, 'eyes only' stuff."

Kira managed to not blush to being indirectly referred to as top secret, but then remembered Yzak and turned to him. He almost laughed when he was staring at him as if he had turned into an alien or something.

"So…" Kira started, "Loose end all tied up now?"

Yzak let in a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment, before returning to his nonchalant demeanor.

"Yes actually." Yzak said, "I hadn't known you three were acquainted, I was under the impression that you didn't know many people from the PLANTs."

"I hardly know anyone, I haven't really been anywhere but the Clyne estate. I met Shinn and Lunamaria on Earth."

"Well, what a coincidence then." Yzak said coolly, he then sighed and decided it would be best if they get back on track.

"All that's really left to show now is the fleet operations room, after that we'll tour the rest of the base." Yzak continued, "Whenever you are ready, please follow me."

"By all means Commander Joule, lead the way." Kira gestured with a smile, one that inevitably grated on Yzak's nerves a bit.

* * *

"Please make sure that these areas are off limits tomorrow." Lacus instructed.

"Of course madam, it shall be done immediately." said Jonathon, the head butler at her estate, "Is there anything else you might need?"

"No thank you." Lacus replied.

"Then if there is anything at all you might need, please do not hesitate to call madam." said Jonathon politely and smiled, "It does my old heart good to see you well after all this time, and everyone is most relieved you have finally returned. Some of were beginning to worry you may never come back."

"I'm truly sorry for any trouble I may have caused everyone." Lacus apologized sincerely.

"Think nothing of it madam. I will not pretend to know the reasons for your absence, but I'm sure they are good ones." Jonathon said, before bowing slightly, "Now please excuse me, I will see that your requested changes to the tours are made at once."

"Thank you again Jonathon."

"Your most welcome madam."

With that Jonathon took his leave and left Lacus in the entry room of her home by herself. Lacus looked around nostalgically at her home, remembering all the memories that were inside it. At had been quite some time since she had been inside her own home, over two years had passes since she had to make her escape after Athrun's father had branded her a traitor to the PLANTs. She decided to take herself on her own tour, starting with the first floor, as soon as she opened the first door though she was greeted by the familiar sight of all her haros. They immediately bounced excitedly all her around her and beeped out indecipherable electronic noises.

"Lacus! Lacus!"

"Yay!"

"Hello!"

"Where pink one!?"

"Lacus!"

"Party Time!"

Lacus couldn't help but let out a fit of giggles as her haros jumped all around her and exclaimed their greetings.

"My…" Lacus said, calming her breathing, "I see everyone has missed me, sorry I was gone for so long."

The Haros once again barraged her with their replies, and Lacus couldn't stop herself from breaking out into giggles again. Eventually she started wandering through her own home again; her faithful haros following were ever she went to keep her company. Eventually she came to her own room located at the back end of the house, it was a magnificent room that offered a beautiful view of the flower gardens and the lake below. She sat down on her soft and plush oversized bed; the giant four poster covered in numerous silk draperies and had a small mountain of pillows. She laid back for a moment and savored the feeling of her old bed, kicking her feet happily as they hung off the side. When she sat up she noticed some items on her dresser, which she promptly walked over to and smiled as she observed them.

One was the graduation diploma she had gotten when she had graduated from school when she was fifteen, there was a picture of her smiling and waving at the camera as she was handed her diploma. Another was a picture of her and Athrun at a formal party done by the council when they were twelve, she laughed slightly at how nervous Athrun looked in it. The next was one her favorites; the very first flower she had received after her first singing performance, it was a simple pink rose that was preserved in container filled with a special clear gel that effectively froze the flower in time, for it never changed. She admired the petals briefly and looked at the rest of the room, her eyes falling upon her bedside stand and picture frame it held. She walked back over to her bed and took the lone picture frame the bed stand held into her hands. She ran her fingers across its glass surface, and observed the picture underneath.

It was a formal picture of herself and her father, done by a professional photographer. But even though it lacked personal flare that wasn't what mattered to her. Her father dominated the picture, a gentle smile on his face and an arm wrapped around her shoulders. She stood by his side, both of her arms crossed in front of her and a joyful expression on her face.

"Father…" Lacus spoke softly.

A tear then splashed across the pictures surface, the droplet breaking apart like brittle glass, the fragments glittering briefly in the rooms light before landing. Soon after the first tear came a second, then a third and then more after that. Lacus suddenly hugged the picture close to her chest and continued to cry silently… all alone in her room… all alone in her home.

Her haros were oddly quiet.

* * *

"Well Mister Yamato." Yzak said, "That's quite enough for today, your transportation to take you home is ready."

"That's good to hear." Kira replied in a relieved manner, "It's been a hectic day that's for sure; I'm looking forward to some rest."

'_Home…_' Kira thought of Lacus's estate, her home… now his home as well.

It had been a quite a busy day for Kira indeed, filled to the brim with all sorts of tasks. After his tour had been finished, his tour guides Shinn and Lunamaria had been relieved of duty. They still had regular duty hours, unlike Kira who was trying to do as much as he could effectively do in the short time before his official induction. After that he and Yzak had returned to his office and had pretty much been beginning to reorganize his forces from the ground up, it was mind numbing work, but necessary.

Kira got out of his office chair and grabbed a ZAFT issued duffel bag, filled with his issued white coat uniforms, and then made for the door. Yzak followed closely behind as they went down through the buildings hallways and to the elevators, his brow furrowed in concentration as struggled internally about something. Kira was pretty sure that he was the one that was making Yzak feel so awkward, he was pretty sure he knew the reason why as well, and could tell that it was that reason was really eating at him. Eventually, Kira knew that Yzak would have to come to terms with it.

When they exited the building Kira briefly looked at the sky and wondered why it still wasn't night yet, but then remembered he was on a space colony. The two years he'd lived on Earth had made him used to natural occurring darkness every night, he forgot that space colonies had no sides that could hide from the sun, thus always making it daytime. But no matter how bright it was outside, Kira knew it was pretty late and he was looking forward to going home and seeing Lacus.

It took no more then ten seconds to get to the ZAFT limo that they had taken to get here, and quickly enough the vehicles was moving and had exited the base, speeding toward Lacus's home… his home.

The trip itself was not very exciting, so Kira admired the passing scenery again. They had not passed through any of the forested areas yet, so they were still in the city section that surrounded the military base. It felt odd looking at the modern metropolis during its night hours, because the large city looked like it was mostly empty since few people were actually out and about around this time.

"Do you hate me?" Yzak suddenly questioned.

"Do you want me to?" Kira asked back.

Kira looked from the window to Yzak, who was visibly startled at how he had immediately answered, as if he was expecting him to ask such a question. Yzak didn't answer right away, but eventually a sullen expression took over his face.

"I think…" Yzak started, collecting his thoughts, "…that if you said yes, everything would be so much simpler."

"And if I said no?"

"Then everything would be so confusing."

"I guess for you, it would."

"You have every right to hate me."

"Well then I'm sorry to disappoint you Commander Joule, but no, I don't hate you."

"**How**!?" Yzak suddenly snarled, balling his fists and giving Kira a fierce stare, "How can you not hate me!? I know you piloted the Strike! You know I piloted the Duel! You saw me destroy that shuttle full of civilian's right in front of your own eyes! I saw you dive to try to hopelessly block the shot! I even heard the radio recordings of the battle; I got to hear how you plead for me not to shoot it, and then **scream** when I destroyed it! You're supposed to stand for everything that is right, so how could you **not** hate me for what I've done!?"

"And what would hating you do?" Kira asked calmly looking Yzak in the eyes, "Would it bring those people back? Would it help anything?"

"I know nothing will ever bring those people back, but not hating me goes against everything you're supposed to stand for!"

"By asking me to hate you, you ask me to become a part of the very thing I stand against: pointless hate."

That surprised Yzak some, Kira noticed, he looked completely bewildered. He gritted his teeth as he struggled internally for an answer, one that was not forthcoming.

"I think the real question here is not if I hate you…" Kira said, "…it's if you hate yourself."

"I will **never** forgive myself for what I've done! Even if it were retreating soldiers as I thought and not civilians, that would change nothing! I killed a ship full of people who had no desire to fight, had no ability to protect themselves, and had no reason to die! But they did die!" Yzak yelled, and then downcast his eyes, "…All because I was so blinded by my own hate."

"We all make mistakes."

"Mistake!?" Yzak once again raised his voice angrily, "I killed a shuttle full of defenseless civilians, people that have no place on a battlefield, and all you say is it was a **mistake**!?"

"I wasn't trying to be light about it, but that's what it is: a mistake. A grave and tragic mistake… one that you have to learn to live with all your life."

Yzak suddenly let out a defeated sigh, as if he had just given up on fighting. His facial expression had changed to completely neutral and blank.

"I just don't understand…" Yzak said quietly, "…How you can forgive a monster like me?"

"You may have made a terrible mistake, but that does not mean you're a monster." Kira replied.

"Innocent people have died by my hands."

"And countless more have been saved by them."

"That changes nothing."

"Just as hating you would change nothing."

That last comment struck a chord somewhere in Yzak, and his eyes widened in quiet realization as he finally understood what Kira was trying to say.

"I have discovered that hate itself Commander Joule, is a weapon of far greater magnitude most realize." Kira explained for good measure, "Its hate that causes weapons like nuclear missiles, like GENESIS or Requiem to be made. It's because of hate that so many people have died and so many more continue to die. And most sadly of all, hate is the only reason why so many people pull the trigger. If I hated you, then I would be no better then the people I fight against. Hate is what has held humanity back for so long, and if you hate yourself, then you only hold yourself back as well."

Yzak remained quiet for a few minutes, looking out the window as they passed through one of the forested areas. His face was completely expressionless, but his thoughts were chaotic turmoil.

"I think the main reason I can't ever forgive myself…" Yzak started, still staring out the window, "…Is that no matter how no matter how much I regret it, or how much I think about it, I never actually feel sad about it. All I see is a shuttle full of faceless people exploding, seemingly nothing more then figures on paper. It just doesn't seem real most of the time, but I've never let that fool me because that would be an insult to everyone who been on that shuttle. I just wish I'd feel something, **anything **to make it seem real."

There was another moment of silence between the two former enemies, of which both were thinking were what to say or do next. Kira however, thought he had a pretty good idea of what to do.

"I'd like to show you something…" Kira spoke.

He grabbed one of the two duffel bags he had brought with him since they had arrived at the colony and opened it. Yzak watched with almost lifeless eyes as he observed Kira pull out a small box that was wrapped in black cloth, and handed it over to him.

"What's this?" Yzak asked, taking the box and looking at it curiously.

"Open it and see." Kira replied simply.

As Yzak removed the black cloth that surrounded the box, he quickly found out that it was made of see through glass. Inside the box laid a neatly folded yellow paper flower, its surface marred by numerous smaller and discoloured spots. He opened the box, its glass top coming off easily, and put it on the seat beside him. He gingerly put his hand in and grabbed the small flower by its pipe cleaner handle, he pulled it out and in front of his face to look at it more closely.

"I don't understand." Yzak stated, "It's just an origami flower."

"That flower was given to me from one of the Heliopolis refugees that were on the _Archangel_ when you were pursuing us." Kira revealed.

Yzak's breath hitched in his throat, he had a pretty good idea where this was going.

"Her name was Elle…" Kira continued, "…She was a little girl that was only six years old."

Yzak started to look increasingly troubled, but continued to stare at the small flower in his hands. Kira smiled fondly in memory, and kept on.

"She was a hyper little girl that was for sure, she liked to sneak away from her mother to follow me and my friends around the ship. Whenever we were doing something, she would suddenly show up underfoot, and ask if we needed any help. At first we always said no, but she was so persistent we eventually gave up and let her help out when she could."

Yzak felt as if the air in the room was thinning for some reason, because he was beginning to breathe heavier.

"When we went into the debris belt to salvage for supplies and came across the ruins of Junius Seven, we recruited her to help us make paper flowers, to spread over the ruins in memory of those who had died. She took quite a shine to it, and started making paper flowers all the time after that."

Yzak was sweating lightly now and continued to breathe heavily, almost panting.

"When we finally joined the 8th orbital fleet we quickly were boarded with shuttles from the rest of the fleet that would take civilians down to Orb. I was waiting for my friends to show up when Elle came up to me, she reached into her little school bag and gave me the very yellow paper flower you hold now. She thanked me for protecting everyone, and then went back to her mother and boarded the shuttle, where it then went to the _Menelaos_. When we were in the correct positions the shuttles would be launched to land down in Orb."

Yzak's hands were trembling now, causing the small flower to quiver.

"And then you attacked us, so I decided that I couldn't just let the people I fought so hard to protect die there. So I got back in the Strike, and I went out to assist the 8th fleet."

"And then we fought…" Yzak said softly, "…and then I killed her…"

"...Yes..." Kira nodded, and remained quiet.

Yzak meanwhile was having great trouble controlling himself, and it was a battle of control he was hopelessly losing. He stared at the flower with eyes filled with sorrow; eyes that he thought would never come because he thought he was to cold to care. He had killed an innocent little girl over a misplaced anger towards the person across from him, and now he truly realized what he had done. It was agonizing to know the truth; as it filled him with a despair beyond anything he had ever experienced before. But a part of him couldn't help but feel happy about his grief, as it proved to him that he wasn't a monster like Kira had said. And as long as he felt that sadness towards what he had done, he had not become the sadistic killer he had believed himself to be. It felt so good to have that burden off his shoulders that he did something he hadn't done in over eleven years.

He cried.

The little globs of water felt foreign to him, as they ran down his cheeks and dripped off his face. Small mournful sobs escaped from him, but inside the felt like earthquakes shaking him to the core. Normally he thought he'd rather die then have anyone see him like this, but it felt so wonderful to feel the sadness he longed for that he couldn't care less that Kira was there with him.

When he finally had stopped weeping, he lowered the small yellow paper flower back into its glass container and put the lid back on. He grabbed the black cloth that had covered it, and once again wrapped it around the box. He held it for a moment, simply staring at it, before letting out one last sad sigh and handed it back out to Kira.

"Thank you…" Yzak said, with a small genuine small, "…For me showing me that."

"You're most welcome Commander Joule." Kira replied, taking the box back into his arms, "Anything to help a friend."

Kira ran his hand across the simple black fabric, and smiled a small smile of his own. Happy that he'd been able to help Yzak find some form of closure with the buried issue. With that thought, Kira opened his Duffel bag and gently lowered the small box containing Elle's paper flower inside, now stained with the tears of two men.

With those of the man who wished he could have protected her.

And now with those of a man who wished he'd never killed her.

* * *

"You won't tell anyone about this will you?" Yzak asked, looking out the car door.

"Of course not Commander-" Kira started to reply, before Yzak cut him off with an upraised hand.

"Please… Kira." Yzak spoke kindly, if somewhat awkwardly, "If you want me to call you by your first name, the least you can do is call me Yzak. We're the same rank anyway, so calling each other by rank all the time will confuse people. Besides, we might as well start getting used to calling each other by our first names."

"Not a problem Yzak." Kira assured.

"Well I guess I'll see you around 8:00 am tomorrow then. Any questions?"

"No, I'm good. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good bye Kira."

With that Yzak closed the door and the ZAFT limousine sped away down Lacus's estate's long curving driveway, and out of sight. Kira picked up his three duffle bags, and bounded up the steps to the mansions entrance. Ignoring the beautiful flower gardens and rolling green grass, since he had something far more beautiful on his mind right now. He tried the door quickly even though he expected it to be locked, and it was, so he immediately rang the doorbell. The voice of an older man Kira faintly recognized came through a set of hidden speakers.

"Yes? Who is it?" the voice asked.

"It's Kira, Kira Yamato." Kira stated.

There was short pause, but then one of the large doors opened up and a smiling older man came into view, who immediately bowed respectfully.

"Ah! Master Kira! How good to see you again!" He immediately greeted, "Please come inside."

The man shuffled to the side and bid him to enter by gesturing an arm out towards the open door.

"Thanks Jonathon." Kira thanked and quickly walked inside.

Jonathon closed the door behind them quickly, and was about to rush off to do something, but then turned to Kira again.

"Is there anything you might need Master Kira?" he asked quickly before apologizing, "I'm sorry if I seemed to be in a rush, by we recently had a large increase in… staff, I guess… that's in sore need of supervising."

"No not really Jonathon." Kira said while chuckling, knowing he meant the security that had been stationed here to protect him and Lacus, "Though if you could tell me where Lacus is, I'd appreciate it."

"The last time I saw miss Lacus, she had been roaming around the house nostalgically on the second floor. Is there anything else the young master shall be needing?"

"No, that's all I need Jonathon, thank you." Kira thanked.

"Well if there is anything else you may need, please do not hesitate to call. Now if you'll excuse me."

Jonathon hurriedly rushed off to some other part of the house and left Kira to himself in the entry way. Kira smiled brightly, looking around the familiar surroundings, and then dashed up the stairs to second floor. He turned to the right, opened and closed a door in his way, and jogged down the corridors to the direction of the bedrooms. Soon enough he was right outside Lacus's bedroom door, he grabbed the doorknob and noiselessly opened the door, and he was surprised with what he saw.

Lacus stood by her bed and nightstand; she was trembling and occasionally sniffled, and was clutching something tightly to her chest. He silently closed the door behind himself and put his duffle bags on the floor and approached her.

"Lacus?" Kira asked, concern in his voice.

"Kira!?" Lacus exclaimed surprisingly and immediately turned around to look at Kira.

The first thing he saw was the obvious look of sadness on her beautiful face, a look that was further compounded when he looked at the wet streaks on her cheeks. Her gorgeous sapphire eyes brimming with tears that still ran down her face, a couple strands of her bright pink hair clung to the damp parts of her face. For a moment, Kira couldn't help himself.

'_God she's so beautiful…_' Kira thought quickly.

He saw the picture frame she clutched to her chest, and could see that it was a picture of her and her father. After that it didn't take much to connect two dots and get a line.

"Lacus…" he said simply, walking towards her.

He wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug, to comforting her as best he could. He was pleased when she simply leaned onto him, and then eventually wrapped her own arms around him and returned the embrace, still clutching the photo to his back.

"I miss him Kira…" Lacus said quietly.

"I know you do Lacus, I know." Kira rubbed his hands over her back soothingly, "I may not have known him very well, but I miss your father as well. I only wish I could've got the chance to get to know him better."

They stood there for a while, simply enjoying each other presence. Lacus had idly put the picture back on her bed stand sometime and was now snuggling herself closer to Kira, using his shirt to wipe away her tears. She breathed in a deep breath full of Kira's comforting scent, and then let out a relaxed sigh. She stayed in his arms for a few more moments, and then backed away a bit, her arms still on his chest and his on her waist.

"Thank you Kira, as always." Lacus thanked softly.

"Anytime Lacus…" Kira smiled, "I'm never far away, especially now that we're on a PLANT."

Kira detached herself from Lacus briefly and looked at her rooms large window, and out at the scene below. Briefly admiring the wonderfully colourful flower gardens before looking at the body of water past that, his eyes trailing a patrol boat as it sped by and spit up a twinkling mist of water droplets in its wake.

"That's a sight I can get used to…" he said more to himself then anything.

"It is beautiful isn't it?" Lacus asked, kicking off her shoes and socks while Kira wasn't looking, and then she yawned audibly.

"Tired?" Kira asked innocently, but didn't get an immediate answer, "Lacus?"

He turned around to her but all he saw was blue eyes and a bright flash of pink before he was tackled with surprising force onto the bed behind him. He looked up at Lacus, who was laying on top of him, with her hair down from its ponytail, a playful look on her face as she looked down on him. Lacus couldn't help but giggle at the stunned expression on Kira's face as he looked at her, then she immediately put her head on his chest and hummed contently.

"Yes, I am tired." Lacus said truthfully, "And I've found the perfect spot to sleep."

Kira continued to look at Lacus oddly for a moment, but then smiled when he saw her blissful expression as she cuddled closer to him with her eyes closed, wrapping her arms around him and holding him close. Kira encircled his arms back around her and inhaled the wonderful smell of hair, enjoying the feel of her lying on top of him.

"Close curtains…" Lacus half mumbled.

The light blocking curtains started to slide on their rails and cover the large window in her room, putting the room in near complete darkness.

"Goodnight Kira." Lacus said sweetly.

"Goodnight Lacus." Kira replied softly.

And the two fell asleep just like that.

"I don't wanna!" trilled one of the duffel bags.

* * *

**It certainly turned out a lot longer then I thought it was going to be, which is a good thing of course. I'm not sure if I'm completely satisfied with all the parts either, I'll have to go over them a couple times. **

**The part with Yzak and Elle's flower was likely the hardest part to write, but it was also my favorite part to write. It was also a colossal bitch to try and keep Yzak in character during that part, hell even Kira was hard to keep in character, I don't know how many times I had to delete whole conversations because they started talking more like Greek philosophers then their actual characters. The ending lines of that conversation I think are awesome though, with both their tears on the paper flower… I found it tugged on the heart strings quite a bit. **

**So tell me what you thought about this chapter, don't be afraid to tell me your opinions or point out any of my mistakes! Like how I said Chairwomen in the first chapter instead of Chairwoman, hehe…ugh. The urge to Samurai Suicide was great let me assure you, but I don't have a Katana, or even a short sword. Anyway, that's it for now, hopefully they'll be more next Friday!**


	3. Announcement

**Well here we go everybody; sorry it took a while to get up. I don't know why it took so long, even with the New Year and Christmas behind me, it just took quite some time to grind out this chapter for some reason! Don't fret though; the next chapters should be far more enjoyable to write since I got them a little more planned out. That said, I'll also inform you that any updates I do will be on a Friday. Hopefully they'll be one every week but if not then every second week, just so you know.**

**And sorry it wasn't as long as the last chapter was, but as I said before, it was a real chore for some reason. Hell, even personally I didn't like this chapter very much, but it was necessary obstacle and now it's out of the way! Yay! Hope you enjoy regardless!

* * *

**

"What do you mean we can't access the bedrooms? Why not!?" Sara Kiteon questioned, an eighteen year old tour guide that worked at the Clyne estate.

"My humblest apologies madam." Said an older middle aged man, "But the greeter should have already outlined that the personal areas are to be off limits for an indeterminate amount of time for now. I'm terribly sorry if you were not informed when you and your charges entered."

"That's not what I asked Jonathon! I asked '**why**'?" Sara retorted, "I mean why can't we? It doesn't make any sense to just up and say 'no' all of a sudden, and then when people ask why you just have fancy of way of saying 'because'! I have a lot of clients here that come here just to see the bedrooms, particularly Lacus's bedroom! I'm going to need a better excuse then that to tell them!"

Sara's tour group was just around the corner in one of the houses two recreational rooms, taking pictures, looking around curiously, and just generally 'Ooh'ing and 'Ah'ing at everything. The whole group had been informed that the bedroom areas were to be off limits by the door greeter when they had entered the mansion; naturally the group was not at all impressed and had approached Sara about it. So under the request of several angry clients she had asked to speak to Jonathon as he was the man in charge and try to get him to open the area back up, or at least explain why the area was closed. Unfortunately she was having zero success in either category.

"I'm terribly sorry madam, but I cannot tell you the specifics behind the reason. However, I have received full authority to allow your charges to tour the yacht down by the docks which were previously declared off limits. If that is not suitable then we can provide a full reimbursement of payment to those who wish it."

"I guess that's all I'm going to get, isn't it?" Sara closed her eyes and rubbed her temples in frustration, "Well at least I have something to give them."

Sara turned around and began walking back to her tour group around the corner. She knew that they still weren't going to be happy, but access to the yacht was better than nothing. She knew the refund options wasn't going to be really much of an option either, these tours raised funds for charity organizations after all, no one could feel right taking money back from a charity once you had all ready given it.

"Biiirdy!"

Puzzled at the odd noise, Sara was about to turn around before she saw a flash of green fly above her head. She jerked her head a bit in surprise as she it flew by so quickly, and gasped a little as the little green thing flew in front of her. A little robotic bird hovered right in front of her, green and yellow wings flapping gusts of wind into her face that played with the loose ends of her hair. It cocked its head almost curiously at her.

"Birdy?" the little robot chirped.

"Uhh... hi?" Sara greeted unsurely, she felt kind of foolish.

"Birdy!" it replied cheerfully.

Before she could even say another word the bird landed on her shoulder as if it were a perch, and began to observe its surroundings. It ruffled its wings briefly, as if to get them more comfortable and then its little head swivelled to look at Sara's surprised and confused one.

What... what are you?" Sara said, not knowing what to say, "I've never in the time I've worked here seen you before. Probably just another of Lacus's toys no doubt... but still, this entire day is being very weird so far."

Sara thought back to when she and her tour group had entered the home, that was where she instantly noticed the lack of the haro barrage. Sometimes they were just out and about and eventually they would find the group, but so far there had been no sign of them! That had never happened before! Then there was the whole 'bedrooms are off limits' part of things, which was incidentally also the worst part of things. Now a new robot pet she had never seen before had just shown up... suspicious events if she ever did see them.

Normally such suspicious events that were going on would lead to exciting conclusions, but she immediately dismissed those thoughts. Judging by the amount of construction contractors and various building materials she had seen flowing toward the bedroom area, it was pretty much guaranteed that some maintenance or repairs or some form of update on the house was taking place. But still, one can only hope that perhaps even the most far fetched conclusions came true.

"Well whatever the case for what's going on, I still have a job to do." Sara spoke to herself more than anything before looking down at the little robotic bird on her shoulder, "I guess you can tag along if you want mystery bird."

"Birdy." It squawked.

Sara navigated her way back to the recreational room where she had left her tour group, and took a deep breath before entering, mentally preparing for the worst. As soon as she closed the door behind herself, she turned around and noticed how she was already surrounded by curious young students. Her tour group was comprised of twelve political science students that were from November city, no doubt were researching Siegel Clyne, the fact that Lacus lived here though was the real reason anyone ever got excited.

"Well?" asked a hopeful black haired kid.

"I'm terribly sorry everyone." Sara said, and immediately everyone groaned in disappointment, "But after a compromise I've been given permission to allow you onto the yacht, which was formerly off limits. If that is not enough, they are also offering refunds to any who should request it."

"But that's not fair!" Complained a red haired kid.

"I'm terribly sorry, but theirs nothing more I can do."

The group of young sixteen year olds just let out meek complaints and disappointed mumblings, but otherwise took it rather well. Unsurprisingly, no one requested a refund.

"Shall we continue the tour then?" Sara asked brightly.

Everyone nodded, if somewhat reluctantly. At least they'd get to see a really nice yacht.

"Then please follow me." Sara said while opening the door to the hallway behind her.

Sara led the group of young students out into the hallway and into the mansion beyond, showing them all around. The students got to admire the magnificent décor on the inside of the house in all the rooms they visited, and then they moved outside to the outer garden areas. They stared in awe at the wondrous flower gardens and the small ponds and streams that dotted the grounds. On the way to the yacht, they were treated to a short sight of the Clyne estates inner gardens which was an overlooked side effect of being able to see the yacht. The inner gardens were strictly off limits, and no amount of requests had lead to it being opened to tours. They gaped at the beautiful sight; the perfect lawn, the decretive flower gardens, the ornate fountain, but most of all what laid at the top of the hill.

A modest sized clear glass gazebo adorned the crest of the hill, looking like a lighthouse on the coast line. It was surrounded by simple flower border at its base which was tended to by a lone gardener, and was further surrounded by an untouched expanse of green grass that flowed out for about thirty meters in all direction, split only by the straight marble path that went straight from the gazebo to stairs that accessed the docks. Behind the gazebo was a large twelve meter tall waterfall that slowly trickled twin streams of water into an unseen pond below. The rock waterfall really made quite an amazing background to the otherwise simple gazebo.

It was all short lived however, as they were quickly heading down the stone steps to the dock house below where the yacht was stored. It was indeed a very nice yacht, but even then they weren't allowed everywhere on the yacht, specifically the living areas. A little fact the head butler had 'forgot' to mention. When no one was looking Sara shook her fist and swore revenge upon Jonathon, perhaps she'd leave the 'No food or drinks rule' rule out of her welcome speech with the next group.

Finally though, they were heading back into the house to the kitchen, where the chefs prepared a nice delight for the visitors before they left. Something Sara looked forward to, since as a tour guide she got to have the treat of the day several times!

"And lastly…" Sara began, before swinging the kitchen doors open, "We have the kitchen."

Numerous chefs busily trotted about in the large modern kitchen, putting the finishing touches on pans full of raspberry and kiwi danishes. All the silver surfaces within sparkling and gleaming despite the obvious recent use, obviously the chefs were quite dedicated to the cleanliness of their workplace. Immediately a larger and well rounded man emerged from the bunch, a friendly smile on his face and a well suited if stereotypical moustache under his nose.

"Ah welcome to my kitchen!" he greeted loudly over the clatter behind him, "The finest in all Aprilius I assure you!"

The students looked around in interest, especially at the danishes, they looked simply mouth watering.

"Ah yes! A special treat for you all today!" The chef spoke loudly, swinging his arm around the shoulders of the nearest male student. He then pointed at a tray of twelve danishes, "Do you know what these are my friend?"

"Uhh… No?" The student said unsurely, feeling awkward with the chef's arms around his shoulders.

"Well those are raspberry and kiwi danishes, and I can tell you in full confidence that these very master pieces you see before you…" The chef paused for dramatic effect; all the students stared at him curiously awaiting the answer, "Are Lacus Clyne's favourite dessert."

The students looked at the dessert even more hungrily at that little revelation.

"Enjoy!" The chef said, releasing the boy had wrapped his arm around. The students immediately went for the danishes and sunk their teeth inside of them, letting the marvellous taste to sweep them away. Sara went and grabbed one and then proceeded to lean on the dining room door, which was also one of the no-go areas of the house. She munched away happily on her treat and watched as the students talked amongst themselves; eventually she started to drift off in thought.

Well at least she was going to, until she heard muffled voices coming from the other side of the door she was leaning on. She could only really hear one voice though; the other source was not close enough to the thick door to hear.

"Shoot… the button undid itself again." Sara heard an obviously male voice say, there was a short pause.

"I'm not fidgeting that much." The voice said again.

"I just got to break it in like anything else, I got used to the Orb one after all."…

"Damn tricky button."…

"Nah its okay, really you don't have to."…

Sara sighed, hearing enough. Obviously some people had run off and went exploring on their own and none of the staff had caught them. Well they weren't going to run around anymore, that's for sure, Sara had caught them red handed. She turned around and swung the door wide open.

"Okay you-" Sara stopped talking because she was pretty much sure her jaw slammed into the floor.

Standing there in all her glory was Lacus Clyne herself, dressed in a beautiful white dress that did quite an excellent job of modestly covering her up while accenting her femininity. It had short sleeves that ended just before the elbow, and the dress was long enough to cover her legs except for her feet at the bottom. She had her pink waist length hair simply let down behind her loosely, decorated only by her trademark golden clip. She stared at Sara with a surprised look all over her face, and her arms were clasped around the collar of the man she stood in front.

She looked over at the other person, the one who was obviously speaking before with just as much surprise. He too was looking at her with a stunned expression on his face; he had a head full of messy brown hair that suited him strangely well, as well as violet eyes. The biggest kicker though was not only he wearing a ZAFT military uniform, was that its colour was white, which would signified him as one of the militaries top dogs. And here he was, getting his collar buttons done up by Lacus Clyne.

The students behind Sara quickly looked over one by one through the large door, and were subsequently stunned into silence with similar thoughts as Sara.

The two groups looked at each other for a couple moments, until Lacus broke out of her surprise and put a bright smile on her face. She quickly did the button on the man's collar up and turned to face Sara.

"Well I guess it seems you caught me." She said simply, her beautiful voice confirming that it was indeed her.

"Uhhh…" Sara somehow managed to say, she was still working on putting a few words together.

"I guess you'll all have an interesting story to tell your families tonight." Lacus replied, giggling slightly at Sara mind boggled look. Sara was still working on those words, so she didn't respond.

"Now I'm sorry to leave you all so quickly, but we-" Suddenly her hand darted out and lightly smacked her companion's hand which was tugging at his uniforms collar, she turned to him quickly and gave him a comical scolding look, "Stop touching it or you'll just undo it again!"

"Sorry." He apologized, putting his hand down.

"As I was saying." Lacus turned back to Sara and the students, "I'm sorry I have to leave so quickly, but we're terribly busy and must be going, please excuse us."

She was about to walk away, but then paused for a moment. She ran into the kitchen really quickly and grabbed two danishes off a pan.

"Thank you Hugh!" Lacus said, before running back to the violet eyed man and handing him one of the danishes.

"Anytime at all miss Lacus!" The head chef called back, completely unphased by her appearance.

While Lacus was getting the danishes, Sara noticed the little robotic bird that she pretty much had forgotten was on her shoulder fly off and land on the mystery man's shoulder instead. It turned around and tilted its head quizzically at her, she looked at the man and he simply smiled kindly at her before Lacus handed him his baked treat.

"Bye everyone!" Lacus waved back at them.

Lacus grabbed the man's unused hand with hers and pulled him away, and quickly enough they were out of sight. As soon as Lacus disappeared from view, it was almost as if a switch was thrown on in the students, they immediately began a pursuit.

They didn't get very far.

The head chef immediately was in front of the door and slammed it shut quickly; he turned around and stared down at the kids before him with an intimidating and serious expression on his face.

"I do believe this area is off limits to tours." He said sternly.

"But-!" One of the students stammered immediately.

"But we'll likely never have another opportunity like this again!" Said a female student, "I even have one her albums with me by pure chance and I could've asked her to sign it!"

"Well I'm sorry, but please respect miss Lacus's privacy."

The group let out some weak arguments again, finally though, their guide Sara had recollected herself and addressed the group.

"And that will conclude the tour of the Clyne family estate." She said somewhat quietly, still somewhat in shock of what just happened, "Please follow me back to the entrance."

The students talked and blabbed all the way back about what had just happened, as even though they didn't talk to her directly, they were still saw her close up, she even talked to them! That was still pretty awesome! And as teenagers, they gossiped.

"Did anyone take a picture? Please say someone did." One guy asked.

"Sorry man, no one did." Another guy replied.

"Cause you were all too busy drooling over her." One of the girls said.

"Oh and you weren't then?" Countered one of the guys.

"Not for the same reason as you pervs!" She retorted hotly.

"Yeah yeah." Teased the guy.

"What I want to know is who that guy was." Said another girl, changing the subject.

"He's a ZAFT guy, he's escorting her around, mystery solved." One of guys answered before adding, "What a lucky bastard…"

"He's a white coat; I know who all the white coats in ZAFT are. I don't know that guy though, and that's weird." The girl replied.

"He had pretty eyes." The first girl said dreamily.

Sara just droned it out after that and let the younger teens talk. What an insane way to start the day.

* * *

Soon after that incident, Kira and Lacus had retreated to the comfortable and familiar environment of the inner gardens gazebo. They had the windows open to let the breeze in as well as the comforting sounds of the water splashing into the pond behind them a ways, it provided quite a relaxing atmosphere. The two sat around a small circular table and like the younger children discussed the now passed event.

"Was that ever awkward." Said Kira, "I'd say your cover is blown, but I doubt anyone will believe them, which is good."

"Well my return is being announced tomorrow anyway, I guess it's really no big deal either way." Lacus replied, before sinking her teeth into her treat. She closed her eyes and hummed in delight as the flavours washed over her tongue.

Kira couldn't help but smile at the delightful expression on Lacus's face as she ate the fruit covered treat, how did she always manage to make everything look so beautiful? When Lacus opened her eyes she noticed Kira smiling all silly like and her haros bouncing all over him, it made for quite an amusing picture.

"Come on Kira, eat it! You'll love it!" Lacus urged, noticing that he had yet to even try his danish.

Kira simply complied and ate his pastry, and as he expected it was very delicious. Who knew that raspberries and kiwi would go so well together?

"Mmmm…" Kira moaned his approval, chewing slowly to savour the taste.

"I knew you'd like it." Lacus nodded all knowingly.

There was a slight pause in conversation as Lacus swept the crumbs off her hands and onto the table, and instantly several birds flapped in and landed. She fed the birds the crumbs as she always did, and quickly enough Kira followed her example. Lacus giggled a bit when Birdy shuffled around with the birds and interacted with them, it started pecking at crumbs like the others, despite the fact it couldn't actually eat them. When all the crumbs had been consumed, most of the birds fluttered off, while a few stayed and sang their bird songs to the couple.

"Twenty minutes till we go." Kira spoke quietly.

Kira wasn't really looking forward to leaving, because he'd be staying on base as of today. Once he left, they wouldn't have the opportunity to see each other in person for quite some time. Though it was an incredibly small sacrifice compared to what they already had been through, that didn't make it any more enjoyable.

"It's only eleven days." Lacus attempted to reassure him, "I'm sure it'll be over before we know it."

"I don't know about that…" Kira replied, "I have to go through some pretty brutal training regiments, including Special Forces ones, and Athrun told me some horror stories. I think for me it's going to be a long eleven days."

"I'm sure you'll be fine Kira, from what you've told me about your accommodations on the base I doubt theirs anything here that's not there."

"You already know it's not the things that I'm going to miss."

Lacus reached out across the table and took one of his hands in hers; she entwined her fingers with his before giving his hand a gentle squeeze. A simple and subtle gesture, yet one that provided all the comfort Kira would ever need. They stayed like that a while, just enjoying the beauty of their surroundings and each others presence. Kira couldn't help but nod off a bit as the soothing sounds of water flowing into the pond a fair distance away lured him into sleep. Though he was startled back awake when Lacus suddenly pried her hand away from his and clapped her hands together loudly, when he looked over she bore a cheerful expression.

"I know just the thing!" Lacus quipped excitingly while holding out her hands, "General Pepper!"

As soon as she said that a dark green haro jumped out of the horde and landed in her outstretched hands.

"Reporting for duty!" it beeped immediately.

"Would you do me a favour and keep Kira company while we're apart?" Lacus asked it.

"Yes sir!"

The haro bounced back across the table and stopped in front of Kira, where it then just seemed to calm down and observe the room by spinning in lazy circles. Kira looked down oddly for a moment at the little green ball spinning in place, before giving Lacus another smile.

"Well that's a bit better." Kira thanked, "But it can't really compare to the real deal."

"Well I'd have to agree, nothing is as good as the real thing." Lacus agreed, "Spending all that time in space apart from one another was frustrating at time to say the least."

Kira nodded, silently agreeing with Lacus. His eyes caught another tour group traversing the edge of the inner garden, some pointed up at the gazebo as they saw it was occupied and no doubt wondered why someone was even in it. Luckily he had himself in a position that concealed Lacus's obvious pink hair to the people below so as to contain the spread of Lacus rumours, even though it would make little difference as of tomorrow's announcements. In the short time they had left together they discussed all sorts of matters, from serious to trivial, enjoying every moment of each others company as it would be the last they would get for quite some time. Though eventually the clock finally struck zero, and an electronic ringing filled the air.

"Answer." Lacus spoke somewhat sullenly.

"Your transportation has arrived, madam and sir." Jonathon's voice immediately said through the gazebos ceiling speakers.

"Very well, thank you Jonathon." Lacus replied, "Kira and I will be there shortly."

By the time the call had ended, Kira was already out of his chair and beside Lacus's with his hand outstretched.

"Shall we?" Kira said, giving her a small but kind smile.

"Of course." Lacus answered sweetly, putting her hand in his and allowing him to be a gentleman.

Slowly they navigated back through the corridors of Lacus's family home to the entrance ways, where they're respective escorts were likely waiting. The journey made mostly in silence, but that was broken when Kira suddenly brightened himself considerably.

"You know what? Your right Lacus." Kira said suddenly, which confused Lacus at first, "I don't think these eleven days are going to long at all."

"That's the spirit Kira!" Lacus replied happily, "It'll be no time at all…"

* * *

"These eleven days are never going to end…" Kira said to himself tiredly.

Ever since Kira and Yzak had arrived on base at around 9:00 in the morning, they had immediately begun the laborious work of pretty much reorganizing and rebuilding his forces from the ground up. They had worked all day and got much done, but eventually the work day had ended and Yzak had departed. But that little to stop Kira, he had kept working long past since Yzak had left, determined to get as much done as possible before he was officially sworn in. So here he was still in his office, 11:30 at night, currently organizing ships into their specific battle groups.

"_It's been eleven o'clock for like three hours now._" Kira thought, annoyed at the times seeming reluctance to move, before musing, "_Well at least if time refuses to move, I can get more done._"

For the most part everything was going smoothly, all the ZAFT units were handling themselves pretty well, it was just that they were constantly bumping into each other and lacking force cohesion on large scale. Kind of like a puzzle; many of the sections were complete, but all those section were just in the wrong places. Kira also thanked god for Yzak being around to help him out, as commanding such a large military force was vastly different from commanding the forces of Terminal had been. There were a lot of finer details and nuances involved and it really helped speed things up considerably, but even then things were a pretty slow moving process.

Kira sighed tiredly in the dimmed room, eyes following the revolving holographic image of the Aprilius PLANTS and the various ships that surrounded them. The only sound in the room was rapid fire clicking of Kira's fingers on his computers keypad as they typed several different changes and orders a minute to quickly fix this logistical disaster. But it was not as horrible as it could've been; Yzak had done a fine job of keeping Kira's fleet intact while it was pretty much leaderless, but he had his own fleet to worry about so it was still no wonder that Kira's fleet was in such state described as… well executed disarray. But Kira had made much progress towards fixing those ends today, hopefully he could be finished all the major stuff in about four days, because that was all the time he had before they put him through accelerated training, and that was even the end of it! Even after he'd been sworn in, he'd have to all the advanced training just like everyone else did. The only real bright side was that after all his fleets organizational issues were all done and solved; he'd be able to go back to Lacus's home guilt free!

"_My home…_" Kira corrected himself.

Then again he'd still be gone more often then he'd like, there were bound to be training exercises that were several days if not even weeks in length. But Kira knew this; he was joining a military organization after all, to expect anything less would've just been foolish. At least the Supreme Council was kind enough to give him the position that directly over saw to their security, which meant he'd get to sit in on all their meetings and be around Lacus much of the time while on the job. Again Kira found himself thanking Yzak as the silver haired commander was currently holding the mantle of his position, until he officially took it over anyway. Yzak himself seemed quite eager to be free of the extra burden of not only dropping the impossibly dull security job, as he described it, but fully passing the reigns of an entire mobile fleet into Kira hands. In fact, Yzak was just about bursting with barely contained excitement that'd he'd finally get rid of all the extra work, plus he really disliked working in his government building office.

Kira to, so he had been told, had another office in the PLANTS central government building as all high level commanders did, since it also served as ZAFT's 'Pentagon'. On a brief tangent thought Kira briefly wondered what his office there looked like; hopefully it was a little more practical then this one. Quickly enough Kira refocused his thoughts and once again his fingers danced across his computers keypad.

"_All ships will be divided into six separate battle groups, designated A through F. Each battle group shall have five Nazca class destroyers, as well as two Laurasia class frigates. Battle groups A, B, and C will have the _Eternal_, the _Minerva_, and the _Arx_ respectively. Only battle groups A and C are currently operational with all other ships in various stages of refit, repair, and resupply. That leaves only one battle group each to defend Martius and Aprilius cities… what a catastrophe this war has been… there used be two full fleets to defend each colony group, and now we only have one fleet for every two… and none of the fleets are close to be fully operational yet. Each city is going from a standard defence of ninety plus ships… to less then ten." _Kira thought grimly, "_At least when all the repairs are made that'll increase to a little more then twenty ships, still…."_

In the wake of the war there were going to be pushes for rapid rearmament and recruitment, which was natural. All the worlds' militaries had taken massive casualties, it was to be expected that all sides started pushing for recruitment among its citizens to make up for its losses. But Kira knew it was a dangerous and crucial time that would have to be carefully regulated lest it lead to disaster. If they just allowed the military to swell with numbers after the war was over, it could very well lead to another fear based and hate fuelled war, just as the last one had started. However, despite the grave implications it was one of the easier solved problems, and Kira had every bit of confidence that Lacus would fix it quickly.

"Biiirdy!" Birdy suddenly chirped.

Kira raised his eyes, looking at the robotic bird as it flitted around his office and weaved all around the huge holograms that dominated the central area of his office. Kira couldn't help but smile as he imagined a giant version of Birdy to scale with the holograms, soaring between the PLANTS and dwarfing every spaceship ever made. That would be something else, to see a colossal sized outline of a bird outside the PLANTS glass walls, looking like nothing but an obscured shadow. Kira chuckled at his own musings, but then let out a short yawn.

"Hit the bunks!" Suddenly shouted General Pepper, bouncing up and down on Kira's desk.

"Not yet, I can still do more" Kira told the little ball, but he couldn't help it as another small yawn escaped him.

"Insubordination! Drop and give me twenty!" General Pepper persisted.

"Perhaps your right." Kira admitted, "I've gotten lots done, I guess I can call it a night."

"You've done your country proud soldier!"

"Thanks."

Kira felt a little weird talking to the dark green haro, but it wasn't so bad, it wasn't any different from when he talked to Birdy. Kira shut down the holographic projectors in his office and idled his computers quickly before swivelling his chair around till he looked outside the great bay window behind his desk. Eyes going from the large central hanger building and all the dozens of other buildings that surrounded it, all the way down to the distant form of ZAKU as it patrolled the outer edges if the base. Kira stared at the mobile suit for a bit, watching as the seventy ton war machine strolled along the side of the base, each step it took visibly shaking the trees close by. Kira stopped looking quickly enough and got up, quickly walking towards the door that led to his quarters and opening it. After entering he immediately began to undo his collar buttons and cast his white ZAFT coat onto the closest thing nearby, which happened to be the large and plush sofa that was in what could be described as the den, or recreation room. He'd throw it in the laundry later, he told himself, leaving it there as he bee lined for the bathroom to make himself ready for bed. Quickly enough he was finished and was off to the bedroom, once inside he immediately threw himself onto the large kind sized bed, welcoming the softness of the stark white comforter and pillows that were decorated with naught but ZAFT emblems. Kira turned his head at the sounds of his two robotic pets as they entered the room behind him.

General Pepper stayed still on the ground for a moment, in which Birdy took the opportunity to land on him. The haro did not approve.

"Mutiny! I'll send you to the brig!" General Pepper threatened.

"Birdy?" Birdy replied, undeterred by the haro complaints.

Slightly amused, but mostly annoyed, Kira turned his head away.

"Close curtains." Said Kira.

The curtains in his room slid shut quickly and the room was plunged into welcoming darkness, Kira shut his eyes and waited for sleep to come. The little robots, sensing the lack of light in the room, immediately grew still and quiet.

"_I wonder what Lacus did today?_" Kira thought quickly, before falling into slumber.

* * *

Lacus was currently in one of the unused ambassadorial bedrooms getting fitted for her Chairwoman attire, it was a slow process but Lacus didn't mind. The two tailor ladies hustled about, taking all manners of measurements and recordings while asking all sorts of questions about what she was looking for. Eileen sat quietly to the side and waited for tailors to finish before she took her to her back to her office to update her on the daily changes. Her security escort, consisting of Dearka and four MPs, waited outside the door for everything to be finished.

"Could you please raise your hands over your head miss Clyne?" One of the tailors asked politely.

"Of course." Lacus replied.

When Lacus raised her hands over her head the tailor thanked her quickly before wrapping a measuring tape around Lacus's midriff and pulling it tight. After a moment, she turned and told the measurement to the other tailor who immediately jotted it down.

"My miss Clyne, you simply have a perfect hour glass figure!" The tailor praised kindly, taking the measuring tape back.

"Thank you." Lacus thanked simply, blushing a little at the compliment.

The tailor simply saw her reaction and laughed softly, before going becoming consumed in her work once again.

"Are you even paying attention Chairwoman Clyne?" Eileen suddenly asked.

"What?" said Lacus slightly surprised, she turned to the older woman with an apologetic look, "Oh no, sorry I guess my mind was elsewhere. What did you say?"

"We'll be returning to your office when the tailors are done." Eileen repeated, smiling at Lacus's embarrassment of zoning out, "And we have few contractors in today, so we'll make a list of changes you want to make and then they can get to it later."

"Ah good, I look forward to it." Lacus replied, before following another one of the tailors' instructions.

"Afterword…" Eileen continued, "We'll go start filming shots of you for tomorrow's announcement. Thankfully all you really have to do is wave and say a few kind things and whatnot, no grand speeches, at least not until your inauguration ceremony."

"Alright then." Lacus said, "Thank goodness I don't have to do a speech, I've had no time to think one out and prepare."

"I'm sure you'd do fine regardless, it's never stopped you in the past, on and off the battlefield. In fact you've quite the knack for it, but that's no surprise. As I said yesterday; you are your father's daughter."

"You're too kind Miss Canaver."

"Think nothing of it."

Most of the time after that was spent in relative silence, with only the two tailors doing most of the talking. They asked Lacus a rather lengthy amount of questions, mostly professional ones but others more personal in nature, but not overly so. After all, they might as well ask, a chance at seeing Lacus again after this were infinitesimal at best. Soon enough the tailors had finished their work and informed Lacus that she could go and attend to other matters, then thanked her for her patience. Lacus and Eileen likewise thanked the tailors for their time and told them they looked forward to their end results before bidding them farewell and departing.

When they left the security detail immediately formed a miniature perimeter around them, with two guards in the front, the other two in the back and Dearka in the middle. They boarded an elevator and descended into the depths of the government building, past even where all the military offices and intelligence bureaus where what was best described as the presidential level. Located at the very depths of the government building, safe and secure within the government buildings deepest confines. Once they reached the office Lacus, Eileen, and Dearka entered while the rest of the security detail immediately stood guard outside and waited until they were needed again. When inside, Lacus peered around the large cavernous with disdain, it was just so dark and bare.

"I wonder what Chairman Durandal had against light?" Lacus spoke curiously, while looking up, "It's so dark… I can't even tell how high the ceiling is."

A little red dot suddenly appeared on the inky blackness that hid the ceiling; and Lacus immediately looked for its source. She quickly found that it was Dearka, who had his sidearm out and laser sight active, he was looking at a small electronic display on the weapon.

"It's about eight and a half meters tall." Dearka told her while holstering his weapon, "Give or take a centimeter."

"Uh, thank you Mister Elsman." Lacus thanked slightly perplexed, she hadn't actually expected an answer.

"You're most welcome Miss Clyne." He replied while smiling kindly.

"Well then." Said Eileen while walking up to Lacus, she handed out a almost paper thin computer tablet, "Putting in some more lighting can be the first thing on the list."

Lacus took the small computer with a thank you and immediately started to make a list, then looked around the room prospecting for other changes to make.

"_What a dreary atmosphere…_" Lacus couldn't help but think, looking around the room.

It was true though, the room had quite a depressing and gloomy feel to it. The lack of light, the non-existent decorations, the huge empty spaces… it felt more like a dungeon. The only things in the room were a large desk, and away from that in a small lit up area where a small sofa and two armchairs huddled around a glass coffee table, as well as six large pillars that rose to the ceiling, and that last part wasn't even furniture!

"Perhaps I can have some screens put in behind with links to cameras outside..." Lacus mumbled thoughtfully, "To give myself the illusion of having windows…"

"Whatever you want Miss Clyne." said Eileen, "Please, do not feel the need to hold back."

"Well if you say so." Lacus replied happily, "On the list it goes then!"

Lacus wandered all about the room hunting for changes to make, and was doing quite a good job of it as the ever increasing list showed. Truly she was going to turn this dark and terrible room, one that witnessed the reigns of madmen in recent years, into a much better and happier place. Well… at least into a better work environment anyway. Eventually she wandered over to the small sitting area which was the only feature it seems that Durandal had ever bothered to add to the office. She noticed that their was nothing but a small chess board on the coffee table, with intermingled black and white pieces it, a quick observation was all that was really needed to see that the game was still unfinished. Lacus hummed curiously and sat in one of the armchairs, studying the pieces.

"_I wonder what side Durandal was… white or black?_" Lacus looked up at the ceiling and at the rooms corners really quickly, "_More then likely black…_"

She looked at what was more then likely the most recently moved piece, a black night that had pushed a white pawn out of its square. The pawn was not yet removed and it lay on the lines between squares, Lacus removed it and continued to observe the pieces. It was whites turn.

"Hmmm…" Lacus hummed, thinking.

She moved a rook forward a couple squares, into a danger zone. It was blacks turn.

"_How would Durandal go about this I wonder_?" Lacus thought, looking at blacks pieces.

His right rook was in a perfect position to destroy her moved rook, then again, if he did destroy it that put his moved rook at risk to her queen; a mutual loss for both. If he left it, it threatened his security. She decided that he would prefer a mutual loss rather then have his king threatened, so he destroyed it. But rather then destroy his offending rook with her queen; she destroyed it with her white knight. Durandal defence was weakened considerably; it seemed he put a lot of faith into his rooks, he decided to fill in the gap with a bishop. The move filled the rook's gap, but thinned his overall defensive line; he only had one rook and bishop left, while his knights had been offensive. She moved her queen to the center column where his king was, exposed with the loss of his rook. She moved his king in the only direction it could, to her right. She pursued with her queen into the heart of the enemy, yet her enemies were not in position to destroy her. She moved the king up to escape… right into the path of her knight that destroyed his rook… trapped.

"_How the mighty have fallen…_" Lacus mused, "_It seems you'd grown careless as things progressed in your favour Durandal._"

Of course their was no way to be sure if the game would've progressed that way, perhaps it would've turned out differently in person? It was all pure speculation based on her rather limited knowledge of Durandal, and she could hardly say she knew the man to any personal degree. Sighing, she swept the board free of all the pieces, refusing to think of the subject any further. She stood up and observed the oversized room once again.

"_Now what else should I change?_" Lacus asked herself before looking at the furniture she just sat on, "_Maybe I can get those in pink?_"

* * *

After her work day had ended, Lacus retreated back to the familiarity of her home. It was around 10:30 at night and currently she was alone in her room, reading a book that had long since been discarded when she had left two years ago. She was reading the book on her bed, lying on her stomach while she swung her legs in the air in a near bored manner.

"Perhaps I should just go to bed?" She thought aloud, "What do you think Mr. Pink?"

The little pink ball bounced up and down on her bed for a few seconds, as if thinking.

"I don't wanna! Lacus!" Mr. Pink replied.

"Alright then."

Lacus decided that she would at least finish her chapter, and continued to read on. Though quickly enough she found it more of a chore then a pleasure, so unable concentrate she began to sing quietly to herself instead. Her harmonious voice was sung the notes so softly, that the melodies barely even traveled through the door. Soon enough however, she found herself unable to concentrate on singing as well. Huffing slightly in frustration, she held out her arms as a summons for Mr. Pink, who immediately dropped into her hands.

"Lacus?" the little ball inquired.

"I know that your friend is far away but…" Lacus trailed slightly, unsure if she should bother to ask, "But you wouldn't happen to still have a connection with General Pepper would you Mr. Pink?"

"Yup!" Mr. Pink beeped.

"R-really!" said Lacus incredulously, "This far away?"

"Yup!" Mr. Pink repeated.

"Can you show me?"

"Yup!"

The little ball split in half and a small square screen lit up on the top half, turning stark white before a clear image snapped into place. General Pepper was moving that much was certain as the video feed spun in circles. The very first thing she saw was a large holographic version of the _Gondwana_, after that was naught but a simple wall on which an empty picture frame was hung, after that she finally saw what she wanted to see. There was Kira, sitting behind his desk, surrounded my multiple screens displaying equipment specifications and inventory and all manners of other military things. His fingers typing at the digital keys displayed on his desk, his face a mask of utter concentration as he focused on his work. Lacus smiled a little, cheered by the sight of him, but then grew slightly irritated as General Pepper kept rotating past him.

"You wouldn't be able to make him stop spinning could you Mr. Pink?" Lacus asked.

She didn't get an answer, but next time General Pepper laid eyes on Kira he stayed put.

Kira hadn't changed at all in the time it took General Pepper to spin around completely, he still worked away at whatever task he was doing. His violet eyes darting from screen to screen, fingers never stopping or slowing but rather speeding up as time went on, quickening his unrelenting pace. Birdy was on his shoulder as usual, beak playing with a strand of his messy brown hair, as if grooming him. Lacus couldn't help but feel a little more brightened by seeing him, her smile growing a little bigger the more she looked at him.

"_Working this late huh Kira?_" Lacus thought, "_Such a hard worker as always_."

Lacus couldn't help but miss him a little already, despite how she could currently see him. Despite the large number of butlers and military police inside her homes premises, she still felt so alone inside the huge house. It was just so lonely without him around to keep her company. She couldn't help but blush in embarrassment a little realizing she already wished he was back with her, thankfully though no one was around to see it.

"_Oh who am I kidding?_ _I missed him as soon as he got in the car and left._" Lacus admitted to herself.

As Lacus watched Kira he quickly glanced at the ball quickly then stared back at his screens, but double taking back to the haro he noticed stopped spinning. Lacus couldn't help but giggle as Kira arched an eyebrow in curious thought as he stared at the haro, no doubt wondering why it was just suddenly staring right at him. Her giggling fit only grew worse, as he reached out with a hand and poked the little ball and rocked the feed slightly, his mouth moved and spoke words she couldn't hear. Oh if only she could hear his voice! Or even talk to him! She had never wished more that her cherished little haros could act like phones rather then just cameras.

Eventually Kira just shrugged and got back to work, ignoring General Pepper for the most part, but he stole quick glances and odd looks at it now again. Lacus laughed as she tried to think what Kira was thinking right now, it was probably something along the lines of 'Why on Earth is this thing staring at me so intensely?' or a more simpler 'Creepy little ball…'. Kira lifted stopped typing with one of his hands and reached up, no doubt going to tug on his uniforms collar.

"Don't tug on it!" Lacus said aloud.

Kira's hand suddenly stopped, as if he heard her, and hovered in front of his neck for a moment. He clenched his hand into a tight fist really quickly, unclenched it, then brought it back down and once again continued to type at a blistering pace. Lacus smile grew even bigger; she pretended to think that he heard her.

"Good boy." Lacus praised.

Lacus just stayed like that for a while, watching Kira as he worked and remain completely oblivious to the fact that she was watching his every move. Eventually though, Lacus couldn't help but feel a little odd as she watched him, as if she was spying on him. Last thing she needed was to feel like a crazy psycho! She already had enough to worry about! She closed Mr. Pink up, simultaneously ending the feed from General Pepper, and decided she would go to bed. She'd need all her rest tomorrow, because the real work for her was about to begin right after the mornings announcement. She changed into a pink nightgown really quickly and then snuggled under the covers of her bed, holding Mr. Pink close like a teddy bear. Quickly enough, she was sleeping peacefully.

* * *

The next morning proceeded like any other morning on Aprilius One, like things always did. Everyone went about their daily lives in a similar fashion, busily going about to innumerable amount of different destinations. Central Street, the busiest street of the entire colony located at the base of the central spire mountain, buzzed with its usual activity. The sprawling metropolis of towering buildings and malls covered either side of the roadway, numerous walkways and sky bridges connecting the buildings far above the ground level. Colossal digital screen were mounted on nearly every buildings side, showing product commercials while other did more simple slideshows playing the part of billboards. People in the street below walked every which way, trying to get to their destinations in the never ending rat race.

"_People of the PLANTS..._" A voice suddenly boomed.

The people below paused at the sound, though not surprised. They looked up at the large screens on the sides of buildings, lit up by a professional looking female news anchor sitting beside a desk. She continued to talk.

"_The Supreme Council has just released this important announcement._" She said.

The video switched from the news anchor to that of two Supreme Council members, Eileen Canaver and Ezalia Joule, specifically.

"_Citizens of the PLANTS..._" Ezalia began, "_Sometime ago the Supreme Council came to a complete agreement that no matter what we cannot allow a repeat to our past mistakes, that we must make sure that people such as Durandal cannot be able to reach the high echelons of government ever again! To make sure that never again can one individual can ever have the power to dictate his terms to the world, whatever their intentions may be! Durandal was one such man, and he nearly succeeded in stripping all of humanity, Coordinators and Naturals both, of it's very free will with his 'Destiny Plan'!_"

"_It is readily apparent that a much different type of leadership is needed._" Eileen took over, "_So the Supreme Council has come to a complete agreement over our future leadership and decided to send an position invitation to the only one we believe is currently completely trustworthy of leading the PLANTS: Lacus Clyne._"

Their was a audible murmur of excitement that immediately ran through the people as they digested the information and it's implications, but before they could get to far the announcement continued.

"_It is our pleasure to inform you that she has accepted..._" Eileen revealed.

The murmurs intensified into near ear splitting conversations as thousands suddenly talked excitedly about the return of the songstress, many others just simply cheered in happiness, and even a few more emotional people wept tears of joy. The announcement was certainly going to be something everyone was going to be talking about for quite a while. Eileen and Ezalia took a step back from the podium they were making an announcement from, and Lacus stepped in from the side taking their place. The very sight of her was all that was needed to cause another audible spike in volume amongst the crowds below, none expecting to see her so soon.

"_Hello, citizens of the PLANTS._" She began, her musical voice ringing in the people's ears, "_I cannot give you any guarantees, nor can I assure you that I will be the leader you all expect of me. But I can promise that I will do anything and everything in my power to make sure that events like those just passed will never happen again. To make sure the mistakes of humanity was made throughout recent and past history stay as exactly that; history! To all foreign affairs I can promise you that peaceful options will be constantly pursued, to show the world that a little pacifism can save us from these hate fuelled wars that have ravaged our world so frequently. But do not mistake that pacifism for passiveness! Should the need that we fight to protect ourselves or others ever arise then so shall we fight! Should we need to take up arms in the defence of what is right and dear to us, so be it, but let it never be said that we were the offenders!_

"_It is my dearest wish that no such events should ever come to pass where we should ever need the aid of a weapon to solve it; I hope beyond hope that the world was learned its lesson, but as a leader I cannot ignore the truth. As I said before, I cannot assure that I will be the leader you will expect of me, but I can assure you that I will try. Thank you, and good day._"

Lacus stepped away from the podium, and Eileen stepped back forward looking at Lacus with a surprised expression.

"_Well!_ _How very inspiring! Truly we are blessed to have you with us Miss Clyne._" Eileen started, "_The inauguration ceremony will take place eight days from now on February eleventh, further details upon the specific time and location will be released later._"

People all across the PLANTS were abuzz with excitement, the true Lacus Clyne had returned, as they're new leader no less! People in groups talked immediately started to discuss the announcement, those who were alone immediately pulled out cell phones and began dialling numbers, eager to talk to somebody about it.

"_Furthermore…_"

Everyone once again halted what they were doing and lowered any talking to hushed whispers, looking skyward once again at the huge screens. Eileen was still behind the podium, she paused briefly as if waiting for the masses to settle some before continuing.

"_Two days after Miss Clyne's official inauguration ceremony will be another ceremony that will take place at the Aprilius One Military Base. The ceremonies purpose is to promote the newly selected Mobile Fleet Commander of the newly reformed first fleet to said rank, whereas the new commander can then officially assume command of those forces under the full blessing of the Supreme Council of the PLANTS. It will be a public ceremony open to anyone who wishes to attend, and it will also be the first official appearance of Miss Clyne as Chairwoman. As like inauguration ceremony, the details shall be released later today. That will conclude today's statements._

"_Thank you for your time, enjoy your day._" Eileen finished quickly and the feed was cut, screen going dark for a moment before once again displaying the usual ads.

Announcement over, the conversations started back up again, and people finished dialling those phone numbers. Indeed, people were talking about the return of Lacus Clyne for the entire day! What they thought about it, what she'd done and what she'd do, and many more topics besides. Of course there were those few who talked about the new military promotion coming up; those entailed wondering who was getting the job? Maybe a talented mobile suit squadron commander? Or perhaps a decorated Rear Admiral? Very few knew the answers to any of those questions, and those who did weren't telling anyone about it. It seemed that the only way anyone was going to find out was to just wait patiently until the time came, times that everyone across the PLANTS waited to eagerly.

* * *

**Well that's that. What do you think? I thought it was kind of boring overall myself, since there isn't a lot of Kira and Lacus interaction. Though I did like the beginning a bunch… and the end wasn't all that bad. The next chapter is going to be a little more exciting, but I have two really cool ideas to start it with. I won't explain them in depth but I will give a general idea of each with one word, the first is 'space' and the other is 'ground'. It pertains to a training exercise of course, but those are so vague that you have no idea how I could interpret it. Tell me what you think in your review, would you prefer something in space or on the ground?**

**Like always don't fret to point any mistakes you see, I won't be offended. And if you have an idea don't feel free to hold back either, if it just so happens I like it I may use it. Just remember, input is healthy for all parties involved! **


	4. Day at the Office

**Yeah, Yeah, I know. Your fears have been realized, for I am… the notorious late updater! I'm really sorry about it, but I've been super busy lately trying to get a job till my summer gig rolls around and so far it hasn't been going very well, so I'm kind of stressing out a bit. I've also been thinking about enlisting a lot lately to, since I've been obsessed with the military since forever. Plus military service might really help my writing, some of the best stories I've seen on this site have been written by people in the military. On another note, I've **_**completely**_** overhauled my profile page, in case some of you are interested in something like that. **

**I'll also be changing my update time up to a month guys, sorry. But with my new writing system you should definitely at least get regular updates now.**

**It's really nice to see many people are so interested in my story! I've gotten quite a number of messages asking me when I was going to update, so here you go! You truly flatter me with your kind messages and continued support. As well I thank those who added my story to their favorites and alert lists, even if you didn't leave a review, though I strongly encourage you to do so.**

**And before I forget, I do believe that once this story reaches a certain point that I will just periodically update it with Kira and Lacus drabbles. I can't really think a grand master plot idea to put behind this story, at least yet anyway, I may change my mind. **

**Anyway: chapter four. Hope you enjoy it! **

**

* * *

**

Space is truly a unique place, it's an utterly empty environment yet it is also where literally everything we've come to know exists. Its infinite depths reach farther then anyone can ever imagine, its sheer size dwarfing everything that resides within it. Yet despite that fact, space is a place were giants roam…

Eight vast ships glided through spaces' vast blackness, engines glowing bright blue as they propelled the larges masses of metal to their destination. All of them smooth and sleek, elegant and streamlined.

"_Destructive and deadly…_" Kira couldn't help but think grimly.

He was currently commanding the forces of his first battle group, Battle Group A, which consisted of five Nazca class destroyers and two Laurasia class frigates as well as his overall fleet flagship the _Eternal_. His battle group was investigating suspicious deep space radar pings out at the sixth lagrange point. It could be just a stray group of asteroids, but it was highly unlikely, four contacts never showed up at the same place at the same time.

"Are you sure you want to do this so soon Commander?" a woman behind Kira asked.

Kira swiveled his chair, the captain's chair, around to face the woman better. She was Rear Admiral Elyse Zender and the top ranking Navy officer under his command, it was her job to oversee the ships and coordinate them in detail in combat operations. She was a woman of average height, with light green eyes and shoulder length dark purple hair that matched the secondary colours of her black coat uniform well. She could be considered old by ZAFT military standards at only 27 years old, at least amongst the pilot divisions; she was still quite young by ZAFT navy standards as most high ranking officers in the fleet were usually in their late thirties. On another note, she was one of only nine Admirals that had not been aboard Messiah at the time of its destruction. She was currently sitting in the Admirals chair, which was where Lacus had sat when she had commanded the ship.

"You haven't exactly had the time to prepare for this sort of thing." Elyse continued, "You don't have to do this."

"It's all right Admiral." Kira replied, "I'm only doing this because it's something I want to do, not because I feel have to."

"So you're absolutely sure?"

"Completely."

"All right then…"

Kira turned his chair back towards the bridge windows and stared out into space briefly, contemplating if he should resume his entertaining philosophical musings upon the expanse before him. Unfortunately, he didn't even get a chance to decide before his radar officer spoke up.

"Commander Yamato sir." The officer addressed professionally, "We are entering the contact area inside the debris belt as designated by deep space radar."

"Thank you lieutenant." Kira said quickly.

Before Kira had the chance to speak again, Elyse cut in quickly.

"Nervous?" Elyse couldn't help but jab at the young commander, a small smile on her face.

Kira looked over his shoulder back at Elyse and gave naught but a small confident grin in reply, before turning back to address his bridge crew.

"All hands…" Kira began, "…Level two battle stations!"

* * *

Lacus was currently sitting in her seat inside of the PLANTS supreme council chamber, reading over documents and reports submitted to her from each and every corner of her government. She was reviewing the information mainly to just better help her understand the various topics that the council would no doubt be discussing soon. That was her current reason to be in the council chamber top begin with, a meeting was to beginning very soon, she had just arrived a tad early and had to wait on the other council members to arrive. Lacus couldn't help but let out a bored sigh as she read all the data on the screen before her, the only noise in the huge empty room was the clicking of her nails on the table's metal surface.

Thankfully she did not have to wait for long, as Ali Kasim, Tad Elsman, and Orson White strode through the chambers open doors. They were respectively the representatives from Januarius, Februarius, and Sextilis cities. They exchanged polite greetings to Lacus before sitting themselves in their proper seats and likewise doing what she was doing. Eventually the rest of the council members had arrived and took to their shimmering white seats themselves; Lacus sat in the one chair that was jet black, a subtle pronunciation of her status as Chairwoman. Eileen took it upon herself to officially start the meeting by clearing her throat loudly, hushing all the members that spoke to each other in low voices.

"Now that we have all arrived, let us begin." Eileen began, "The first item will be the Januarius situation. Would you please begin Ali?"

Lacus watched as Ali stood to begin his report on the subject. If he were saddened at all by the horrible atrocity that destroyed a near third of his city then he hid it extremely well; his demeanor was calm, his voice professional, and his expression emotionless. But Lacus knew that he must still be torn on the inside, and sadly it would likely remain that way for some time. The more logical side however knew to be cautious, if anyone was likely to become another Patrick Zala it was to be Ali. To her benefit though, Ali had been one of members in her father's camp during the first war, and a strong advocate of peace. Hopefully he would remain as he was, but there was no doubt that the tragedy to befall his city would change him somewhat. Similarly she would also have to watch Ricardo Orff of December city.

"The men I've sent have just about finished removing readily processed resources from the ruins of all damaged and destroyed PLANTS. Soon enough we will begin full recycling procedures on the Januarius one and two as well as December one and two, stripping them apart back into basic materials. Also we've already collected nearly all the Exoglass panels, but we've no where to store them. So for now they're just floating as a massive ball of glass in space until they can be reused on the construction of the new expansion PLANTS, but I guess they're going to be replacements PLANTs rather then new ones.

"Now the good news is that the engineers I've sent to check on the status of Januarius three and four have confirmed that the PLANTS are indeed completely stable, and not in danger of collapse. The central spire in each is completely pristine for now, but since a significant piece of each was cut off of it's putting a fair amount of stress on them. Stress levels are rising slowly, and if they get to high then the PLANT will eventually collapse, though luckily the rate of build up is so slow that point if over fifty years away. The bottom line is that both three and four can be completely restored, which will be considerably quicker then scrapping them and building new ones. Besides, we have no where to put the 500,000 people that survived on the other halves of those PLANTS anyway."

Once Ali had finished he sat back down and the discussion started amongst everyone, Tad Elsman was the first to begin.

"Unfortunately there are issues to address with repairing the PLANTS as well." He began, "500,000 thousand people have perished in the sides Requiem have struck, it may prove very difficult to have any citizens of our population to even consider going back to live what could be considered a mass grave."

"Although our population is for the most part very understanding and dedicated to resource efficiency…" Ezalia spoke up, "I have to agree that it is likely that the citizens will be extremely hesitant, if not downright resistant, on this matter."

"There are other solutions…" Lacus spoke up, turning all attention to her.

Lacus was surprised at the curious yet stern expressions they gave her; it was so hard to believe that they were taking her so seriously already. Then again, they did ask her to be Chairwoman for a reason right? Not breaking face, she elaborated upon her comment.

"There is no way your going to convince the people to go back inside the PLANT if you just repair it, and though my solution requires considerably more work, it's still quicker then just building a new colony. We'll likely have to completely bulldoze the city inside the damaged half, and rebuild a new one to replace it; maybe even landscape the land inside a bit for good measure. That way we're rebuilding that side of colony as something new, rather then just repairing it. Hopefully it'll eliminate the vast majority of moral and ethical issues of letting people live inside them."

The council members seemed to internally think it over for a moment before Ali spook up again.

"I see no problem with this." He started, "Rebuilding the surrounding city sections will not actually be that time consuming, a matter of a few months actually. Perhaps we can also displace a river… hmm…"

Ali rubbed his chin in thought briefly, brainstorming some basic plans in his head before Eileen cut in.

"Is there no objections or other routes somebody else would like to propose?" she asked, when everyone shook their heads are waved their hands idly she continued, "So it's settled then. The next issue is whether or not we should begin a short term food rationing plan across the nation…"

Lacus listened carefully, ready to put out her opinions as needed.

* * *

"_All hands: level two battle stations! Repeat! All hands: level two battle stations!_"

"Gahh!" Shinn exclaimed, disturbed from his sleep from the intercoms booming.

He immediately jumped out of bed and spun around the room looking for his uniform; once he spotted it he immediately scooped it up and started to put it on. When he just about finished doing up his coat buttons, a sudden certain female voice stopped him in his tracks.

"Jeez Shinn! Where's the fire?" Luna asked him.

Shinn looked over at Lunamaria, who was wearing some female ZAFT issued pajamas. She sat at the desk that was on her side of the room, the desks built in screen lit up and brightening her face some. She was looking at him with an amused expression on her face, but when Shinn saw her in her nightwear he nearly fell over.

"_Magnetic containment field is stable and angling rotary motors are functional, venting plasma from reactor to main cannon._"

"Hello!? Is that enough of a hint!?" He replied quickly, "Get dressed already!"

Luna sighed and shook her head quickly, her amused expression remaining.

"Shinn… if it weren't for your amazing piloting skills, you'd be useless."

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean!?"

"Didn't you read the memo?"

"What memo!?"

Sighing again, she typed on her computer terminal a bit and when she was finished she gestured toward it with her hand, silently telling him to read. Shinn, read as quickly as he could in the stressful situation but once he finished he instantly felt glad he did.

"_All missile pods are open and safety locks removed, firing tubes are now ready to receive live warheads. Deploying CIWS turrets, linking ammo belts to receivers… belts connected, CIWS system is online._"

"Oh man! What a relief!" He exclaimed, falling back onto his bed on his back, undoing his coat buttons, "I was wondering why you hadn't changed."

Luna huffed indignantly and gave Shinn a sharp look; he cowered inside a little when he met her angry gaze.

"As if I'd change in front of you!" she finished hotly.

"_Damage control crews: stand by._"

* * *

"All ships are heading to their designated search areas captain." Spoke the _Eternal's _communications officer.

"Are the patterns overlapping?" Kira asked the man.

"Aye sir." The officer quickly replied.

"Good, begin our own search then."

The _Eternal _once dormant engines flared up in the darkness of space, the giant thrusters firing brilliant blue flames for a moment before heating up to a hotter white. The engines propelled the massive pink ship forward through its search patterns, the smaller maneuvering thrusters occasionally firing to steer the ship around various asteroids and space debris. Eventually along the ships flight path, they came across the giant pieces of the destroyed GENESIS laser, as well as numerous derelict ship hulks and large asteroids. The ships bright pink hull contrasted deeply with the drab colours of scorched rock and steel that surrounded it. After quite some time the ships radar technician started getting some reading amidst all the debris.

"Captain, faint heat source detected!" the man shouted, "Attempting to classify… thermal patterns inconsistent with any known warship classification, it's too small. In fact it's really small…"

Kira sighed inwardly; finally glad something happened even despite the nature of his mission. And though Kira was happy something had happened he let no indication of it slip through his serious demeanor, which he was actually getting really good at nowadays.

"Helm: bring us closer to that heat source." Kira ordered, "But maintain a 1000 meter distance at all times."

"Aye sir, charting course." The helmswoman responded.

The _Eternal_ navigated its way around one of GENESIS's gargantuan mirror blocks, until it was close enough to the heat source that one of the external cameras could see it. The main ceiling mounted screen lit up and displayed the heat source they had detected.

"It's a flare motor…" The helmsman spoke stupefied, watching the motor on the screen slowly fly through space at a rate slower then 10 meters per second.

What would a lone flare motor be doing by itself in space? It didn't take long for anyone to find out, and for those more slow minded found out just seconds after the first people realizations.

"A trap." Kira stated simply.

"Contact!" The radar technician shouted suddenly, "Four thermal signatures detected, attempting to classify… matched! One Agamemnon class carrier! Three Nelson class battleships! Referencing relevant data… ships are not known in any current database!"

A large holographic array lit up in front of Kira eyes, and a network of uncountable thin green lines connected to each other in a three dimensional grid. Several objects were brought to life on the grid, mostly the surrounding debris in space around them, but four crimson red contacts appeared. The icons pulsed almost menacingly, accentuating the threats that much more, information rolled next to them displaying their location and status. All four were coming in different directions, bee lining for the ship and attempting to cut off safer escape routes, they used the terrain to their advantage in that regard. The radar technician continued to inform Kira of important information.

"Neutron Jamming detected!" The technician finished.

Fully appraised of battlefield status Kira began to give his crew direction.

"Raise condition to level one battle stations! Activate N-Jammers and load all dorsal and ventral missile tubes with Parsifal heavy missiles! Load all starboard and portside missile tubes with Dispar interceptors! Designate targets: Carrier One and Battleship One, Two, and Three!"

While Kira gave those orders he studied the holographic map in front of him intensely, scanning for the best strategy. Four ships: the carrier heading off the _Eternal's _aft side exit, while the battleships cut off the portside, bow, and ventral exits. They were close to a large and densely packed cluster of asteroids that was angled to them, cutting off both the starboard and dorsal exits, effectively boxing the ship in. No matter which way they moved now, the _Eternal_ was going too be brought into firing range of at least one vessel. Cleverly enough, they used they're most powerful warship behind them in an attempt to heard the _Eternal _even farther away from any nearby friendly ships. The first order of business was simple: call for help. The second was likewise as simple: break out; but in which direction? Looking further past the massive asteroids on his starboard side, Kira noticed the debris wasn't as closely clustered together, spacious enough to allow warship movement at least, he decided that would be his destination. He could use the debris to assist him in evasion, while simultaneously use the environment with the ships METEORS to great effect. He glanced at the asteroids angle quickly and immediately decided what to do, right after the words 'Dispar interceptors' rolled off his tongue.

"Fire heat flare!" Kira began, knowing that communication was unfeasible through N-jamming levels with his allied ships distant enough.

The heat flare worked exactly as it sounded, naught but a superheated phosphorous and magnesium cored missile designed to show up on the sensors of every spaceship in a million kilometer radius. Though thankfully with the search patterns, the two closest ships would likely be in communication range in a matter of a couple minutes, hopefully on the battlefield in no more then five.

"Change heading to Delta seven-four-five, we'll break through the ventral route! Don't slow to battle velocity until we reach that point! Acquire a firing solution on Battleship Two for the main cannon, and prepare to volley fire a mixed missile barrage! Prepare to fire anti-beam depth charges on my mark!" Kira shouted, battle excitement bleeding into his voice a little.

Immediately the helmsman had the ship moving, changing the ships pitch downwards with the maneuvering thrusters. And while up and down were very inaccurate terms to be used in space, they were now facing the ship that was previously directly below the bridge. The _Eternal's_ massive engines took their turn, accelerating the large pink warship to speeds to well past that of any other known class to date. The Nelson they were heading for held its course, but the other ships changed course to compensate for the _Eternal's_ movements.

"Distance to enemy vessel?" Kira asked, lowering his voice and fighting the adrenaline.

"2500 kilometers sir." The radar tech replied quickly, "We'll be in extreme firing at 2000 clicks distance in about ten or eleven seconds."

Kira knew a situation like this would likely go one of two ways. The first was that the enemy warship would immediately fire all weapons, or perhaps only beam cannons since missiles fired at extreme range tended to get shot down long before they made contact with the target. The logic being to slow down the enemy ship and buy time for your allies to catch up, that way you could pound on your enemy from all directions and overwhelm them. The second option was entering a deadly game of chicken, waiting to see who fired first. If the enemy threw their punch first then Kira would know exactly how to best effectively punch back, it was almost like warship style rock, paper, scissors. Kira hoped for the former option, because in a straight up one on one warship fight he knew the _Eternal_ would have the upper hand on the Nelson. His ship was not only better armored and maneuverable but it was now much better armed with the METEORS still coupled to the ship, working as additional beam cannons.

"Now within extreme firing range of Battleship Two." The radar tech informed.

Battleship Two did nothing at first as they entered extreme range, but then fired its beam cannons at them. Though the beams were smaller, Nelson class battleships had more energy weapon firepower at seven cannons, Kira watched on the holographic display as the beams, represented as orange lines, sped for his ship at tremendous speeds.

"Change pitch angle to thirty, portside down." Said Kira.

"Aye sir." The helmswoman replied.

Once again the _Eternal's _maneuvering thrusters lit, changing the ships angle to evade the approaching beams, then more thrusters lit up to eliminate the spinning momentum. A scant few seconds later the condensed plasma blasts shot by, passing just under the starboard section of the pink ship then continuing past them and into the depths of space.

"Return fire, main cannon only." Kira requested calmly.

A single large blast of green energy suddenly lanced out of the_ Eternal's _main cannon, heading for the battleship nearly 1800 kilometers distant. Battleship Two, slow and cumbersome as it was, evaded the deathly plasma beam to its portside.

"Compensating…" A woman from the weapon operations section informed.

The _Eternal's _cannon operator, knowing the enemy ships low maneuverability, angled the main cannon just a scant few degrees to the ships starboard side. Knowing the sheer distance to the target was enough to make up for fact that the _Eternal's_ main gun only had a 30 degree lateral firing arc, rather then a full 360 degree turret mount like most ships. When the cannon was positioned, another massive beam shot forth from the _Eternal_ towards the Nelson they were facing off with. With its thrusters just disengaging from dodging the last shot, the other thrusters would not be able to move the warship out of path of the _Eternal's _second attack quickly enough. Evasive maneuvers no longer an option; the Battleship Two fired an anti-beam depth charge to block the beam. A large powerful magnetic sphere came to life in front of the enemy ship, causing the _Eternal's_ second shot to split and bounce harmlessly off its surface, the magnetic fields containing the plasma beam unable to overcome the considerably stronger field emitted by the depth charge. The Nelson class once again returned fire with their own beams, but with the _Eternal _being a much more nimble ship, even at a velocity far above normal combat speed, dodged every beam.

"Distance now 1200 kilometers to enemy warship, now within optimum missile range of hostile contact." Spoke the radar tech.

Battleship Two did nothing, opting to wait for the _Eternal _to shoot its missiles first. Kira, determined not to be first to slip his hand, waited as well. Kira knew he didn't have to wait long; at their current velocity the _Eternal _was going to pass by the battleship in about 25 seconds. Sure enough, the enemy ship fired its missiles first at just fewer than 900 kilometers distant.

"Thirty missiles detected sir!" the radar tech shouted.

"Launch Dispar missiles to intercept them." Kira ordered quickly, "Then fire a mixed missile volley on my command."

Thirty thin missiles streaked out of the sides of the giant pink warship, heading for their individual enemy missiles. Quickly enough the missiles collided, lighting up into bright and short lived orange explosions as they destroyed one another.

"Fire!" Kira commanded.

50 Dispar missiles shot out of the _Eternal's _lateral firing pods, while twenty Parsifals emerged out of the ships dorsal and ventral surfaces. The Dispar missiles rode ahead of the Parsifals, acting as a sacrificial shield to the heavy missiles, giving them a better chance to damage the enemy ship. All 70 missiles rocketed towards the enemy battleship ahead with a deadly purpose, miniature engines speeding them ahead of the pink warship. Battleship Two returned fire with its reserve missile pods, but because the ship was equipped with less launch tubes only twenty missiles were fired to meet the _Eternal's _barrage while the first tubes were reloaded. The missiles collided with twenty of the forward Dispar intercepting missiles, igniting space in brief fiery explosions. The missile threat still not yet eliminated, the enemy battleships CIWS system came to life and spat hundreds of 20mm exploding shells at the oncoming missiles. Unfortunately for the enemy warship, its CIWS system was not designed to handle an enemy with the amount of missiles the _Eternal _was capable of firing, and numerous heavy missiles slipped through its defensive screen. They slammed upon Battleship Two's nose with righteous fury, tearing through the thick steel hull with high yield explosive warheads and into the ships internal structure. Fire and atmosphere blasted out of the warships wounds in large geysers, sending thousands of glittering metal shards in every direction. Quickly enough however, the enemy ships internal sensors detected the catastrophic decrease in pressure and sealed bulkheads to the compromised areas, ending the flaming plumes. Better still, though the _Eternal_ was still more then 600 kilometers away from the hostile ship they had now passed its frontal firing zone, meaning they had effectively escaped the enemy trap.

"Status of enemy ship?" Kira requested.

The young woman manning the ships CIC, who happened to be Meyrin, brought up the enemy images of the enemy warship on her screen using the ships numerous external cameras. Her trained eyes scanned the real time image of damaged battleship as it listed through space, inspecting it for damage.

"Enemy bow section heavily damaged." Meyrin began, "At least two beam cannons are confirmed destroyed. Unknown amount of its forward mounted missile tubes have been disabled. Its bow thrusters have been damaged, severely compromising their evasive maneuverability. However, Battleship Two is still combat operational and is not withdrawing."

"Understood, maintain current heading." Kira stated, studying the new information displayed on his holographic battle map. He knew the ship was damaged heavily from so many missiles impacts, and as much as he didn't want to, he knew he couldn't give it time to recover when it was still a threat, "Fire METEORS and remaining loaded heavy missiles."

The METEORS spun around to face the damaged ship, firing as soon reached position. A quadruplet of pink high energy beams erupted from the barrels, all heading towards Battleship Two's position. Likewise, the remaining twelve of the _Eternal's_ heavy launch tubes fired their payloads while the expended twenty tubes finished reloading. This time the weapons headed for Battleship Two practically at slow motion, crawling across space to their target at a sluggish pace. Since the _Eternal _had escaped the enemy ships frontal firing zone, they too were now free of Kira's frontal area, this meant that because now the ships were heading away from each other, their weapons did not get a super boost in speed via inertia.

Though even with that handicap, Battleship Two's severely hampered maneuverability, gave it no option of evading. It could only shield itself as it waited the agonizing time it took for the _Eternal _fire to reach them. When they finally did arrive, the beams were ahead of the missiles and Battleship Two fired another anti-beam to disperse them. The missiles being next, the warship fired its reloaded and undamaged missiles pods at the oncoming ones and its CIWS system lit up to get what the intercepting missiles didn't. At the end, Battleship Two barely managed to fend off the _Eternal's_ attack.

During that time, the _Eternal _had now completely circumvented the denser asteroid cluster and was entering the less densely packed area. Breaking jets engaging and slowing the ship down to normal warship velocities during battle, speeds generally 100 to 300 kilometers an hour and engagement distances ranging from less then one kilometer to as much as a 100. This was how warships usually fought, the lower speeds made evasion significantly easier since no significant power and time had to be invested in slowing the massive ships down. Not to mention when ships were fighting in a place such as a section of the debris belt, lower speeds made it significantly safer from collision threats. Now the _Eternal_ had fully braked, they started to weave throughout the loosely packed debris and waited for the enemy to come to them.

"Sir, we've received contact from the Nazca class destroyers _Ferris_, and _Hymn of the Wind_." The communications officer rattled off, "They're ETA to the battlefield is roughly over four minutes."

Kira replied a quick acknowledgement to the information before looking back to his battle map, watching the four red contacts reform into a group and pursue him into the thicker debris area. Kira looked at the holographic debris around his ship with grim satisfaction.

"_Now we fight on __**my**__ terms._"

* * *

"The last official item we shall be discussing is how to best reorganize our military and defense budget." Eileen announced, "Please put forth your ideas."

Lacus immediately noticed all eyes set upon her, she couldn't help but blush, feeling flattered at how highly they respected her opinions. She stood up in her chair, as the current talking representative always did, and gave her opinion.

"If we must continue the development and production of technologies for the military, then we should definitely attempt to bring it about in a more defensive manner. Perhaps we could construct defensive measures such light wave barrier shields that the Eurasian Federation employed in the last war. We could equip them to ships or even the PLANTS, so if another tragic incident is to occur, rather them immediately fight back and cause an uproar we could stay safe behind our shields until we could sort out what happened."

Her current opinion voiced, Lacus sat down and decided to hear every one else views.

"I agree with Miss Clyne." Ezalia added, "However, solar energy will not be enough power to make sure a light wave barrier can protect us from a nuclear missile. We'll have to equip nuclear reactors to the PLANTS to power these shields, in order to protect us from that potential WMD threats."

"As much I hope such events shall never happen again Councilwoman Joule..." Lacus added, "I am inclined to agree, nuclear reactors will be necessary."

"Then everyone is in agreement about the subject of light wave barrier shielding?" Eileen asked, no protests were made, "Anyone else have ideas?"

Orson White and Parnell Jesek, respectively of Sextilis and November cities, stood and took the floor.

"Parnell and I have been discussing ways to overhaul our fleet, and we have a proposition to put fourth." Spoke Orson, "Parnell shall discuss the details."

Orson sat back down while Parnell remained standing; he cleared his throat quickly then began to talk.

"Our Fleet has always been compromised of a large number of generally smaller ships, compromising of more separate units that make up a bigger more versatile military force. If we are going to outfit our military for a more defensive stance, I propose we develop a series of much larger warships like the _Gondwana_, but to be superior in all ways. These warships will be designed not only to replace the aging Nazca class destroyers, but to replace entire battle groups in our fleets.

"Now before you go and remind me of the Armory One incident, these ships are especially designed with defensive purposes only. For one, they'll have low hanger space for their size; this will make them impractical carriers. They will also not be capable of atmospheric operations, making them of little threat to anything on Earth. Furthermore, they will play a critical role in our defense grid, each one upholding the cornerstones of our defensive abilities."

Quiet murmurs ran through the council members are they discussed they're immediate thoughts. Soon enough, Ali decided to voice everybody's immediate concerns.

"To replace entire ships battle groups with single ships is a very risky Parnell." He began, "If one were to be lost for any reason, it would leave us considerably open to attack!"

"We plan on making a considerable amount of the ships." Orson rebutted quickly, "Each one will make up a significant portion of our defensive abilities, but should the loss of one or a few ships occur then our defensive perimeter should still remain strong. However, we do not plan on making an unreasonable amount of them; a fleet of about twenty ships for every city will make sure we are well protected."

"Do you plan on having these ships completely replace our fleets?" Ezalia questioned.

"No, of course not. But it will more then likely be the new mainstay ship of our military forces."

"As much as we are all glad the second war has just ended, it is still too soon to rely on a completely defensive military." Tad Elsman outlined, "We will still need an offensive capable military force to pursue the interests of our people beyond our borders if necessary, and I could not in good conscience send men and women out into the field without giving them every advantage I could."

"I had planned to make a variant of the ship without the weaknesses of the first, to serve as a part of a more flexible military force, well suited to both offensive and defensive roles. But the all purpose variant will be significantly less in number to the defender variant though, probably only one former for every ten of the latter. But even then, twenty or so ships like this will be far too little to look into all foreign matters, so we should continue to maintain a fleet of smaller more versatile vessels like we still currently employ. This fleet will be low in number comparatively to the bulk of the new fleet, but more then enough to make sure we have many arms to reach many places. This way we will have a significant offensive combat force suitable to our own needs, but it will simply be too small to uphold any long term military campaign against the Earth Alliance."

"As sound as your argument is, I cannot say I am thrilled at putting ourselves at a deliberate disadvantage in terms of offensive capability." Ezalia said.

"Then it falls to us to make the first step." Lacus spoke, turning all eyes turned to her, "If he must put ourselves at a disadvantage to show that we are making the effort for peace, then so we shall. It has to begin somewhere. As much as I loathe weapons of war, I find myself agreeing with Parnell's points and see this as a logical path."

"Are you sure that is wise Miss Clyne?" Ezalia asked.

"Yes, I do." Lacus said, confidence infused in her tone, "There are other ways we can benefit from this disadvantage, ways that fall outside militaristic boundaries. By not maintaining a large offensive military force and utilizing a mostly defensive one, we significantly cut down on the ways that those who desire war can accomplish their wish. This way we can avoid tragedies such as incident at Armory One, and though that was not the direct reason that the second war started it was definitely the spark that ignited the fire. If we maintain a military focused on defense, they cannot start a war if we do not provide to them the setting to make an excuse for one. Additionally, any attack made merely because we have low offensive capabilities would be folly on the Earth Alliance's part, their own populace will turn against them seeing it as nothing but a war of hate. That is why I support Parnell's idea; by building these ships we will return our military back to its core values: the defense of its people. Besides, the basic description of how the ship sounds appeals to me, a ship best served as a shield rather then a sword."

"Quite correct Miss Clyne." Parnell said, looking visibly more resolute now that he had Lacus's support, "They are designed to be hardened targets that specialize in defense. With their immense firepower coupled with their massive size, they will be intimidating and demoralizing opponents to any invading force. I assure you we'll be well protected."

"Then I see no outstanding issue. We will have to hammer out the terms of use and the exact numbers we can produce at the peace talks. Is there anyone else who wishes to say anything?"

"These ships sound like they will take quite some time to build, and not only will he have to build them, we'll have to build the facilities to build the ships first."

"It will take some time to be sure." Parnell spoke, "But I believe it will not take as long as it sounds. In the time between the first and second war we completely rebuilt our military forces and then some. I believe we can be nearly be finished in three or four years, despite the amount of work involved. And after all, as much I don't want to sound like a bigot by saying this, we **are **Coordinators."

"Then it's settled." Eileen said, "Who else has ideas?"

"Well…" Orson White began, "I've been thinking of some budget reallocation plans..."

"_Math…_" Lacus thought disdainfully… "_I wish Kira was here._"

* * *

"Enemy ships have regrouped and are now pursuing us in formation." The radar tech informed.

"Good." Kira acknowledged, staring at his battle map, "Are the missile clusters retaining position?"

"Aye sir, all missile clusters are remaining in position, no significant drifting has taken place." The missile operator at the weapons section responded.

"ETA of friendly arrival and reengagement with the enemy?"

"Still three minutes till arrival of friendly contacts sir, reengagement in approximately 35 seconds." Said the radar tech.

"Then let's not waste time." Spoke Kira resolutely, "Acquire a firing solution for the main cannon and the METEORS, fire missiles on my command."

Kira watched on his holographic map as the four red blips representing the enemy force crawled to his position, the less nimble ships taking their time to make sure they sustained no collision damage from the debris that surrounded them. But now that all the ships had slowed to battle velocities, they still made towards the _Eternal_ with good speed. They advanced in a pyramidal formation, Carrier One, Battleship One, and Battleship Three forming the base while Battleship Two, being the damaged ship, trailed behind them. Kira knew his first priority would have to Carrier One; after all, destroying the flagship was the most logical course of action. Kira watched as the seconds ticked by and watched as the enemy group neared his position, getting ready for a combined force strike. He didn't have to wait long.

"Enemy ships now within firing range." The radar tech announced.

Kira didn't skip a beat.

"Fire main cannon." He ordered.

Three beams of superheated plasma consecutively jumped from the _Eternal's _main cannon, set on Carrier One. The even less mobile ship had no where to dodge in the particular area it was in, surrounded by debris and its own allies. It resorted to using a duo of anti-beam depths charges to defend itself, causing the beams to deflect harmlessly away. The ships continued to approach in formation, no doubt preparing to fire their own beam weapons. Luckily the enemy warships beam guns did not have barrels as long as the _Eternal's _main gun did, which meant they had less magnetic containers and ultimately shorter range. The _Eternal _sent shot after shot at the enemy ships, but they altered firing their depth charges making sure none of the shots could get through. Soon enough the enemy ships entered the maximum effective range of their own beam cannons, and promptly begin their return fire upon the _Eternal_, sending streams of plasma towards the pink ship.

"Evade!" Kira commanded.

The _Eternal's _starboard thrusters activated full burn, sending the ship out of the way of the imminent threat. But like before, the enemy ships altered their fire and sent calculated blasts to their predicted destination.

"All stop!" Kira shouted, "Counter our thrust!"

Immediately the _Eternal's _portside thrusters burned while the starboard ones cut out, quickly halting the ships momentum in the void. The ships far more advanced and efficient thrusters halting the ship before it reached where the enemy predicted they would be. Green beams sailed past the _Eternal_ once again, missing by several hundred meters.

Then the last ship at the front of enemy formation opened fire at them, and unfortunately Kira found himself unable to maneuver further. His ventral and dorsal escape routes were blocked by debris, his lateral thrusters had been expended and required at least ten seconds to cool down after full burn. He would have to resort to built in defenses this time.

"Fire an anti-beam depth charge!" Said Kira.

A depth charge shot out of one the _Eternal's _four anti-beam depth charge tubes, it quickly headed to the front of the pink ship and detonated, dispersing the beams. Now all the enemy ships had fired, Kira prepared himself for inevitable missile exchange that was about to follow. The warships crept closer and closer to the _Eternal's _position and all eyes were on the numbers that shrank rapidly, waiting for those numbers to fall to optimum missile range

"Fire all missiles when they are in range." Kira told his missile operator, "And prepare to activate missile clusters on my mark. Helm: get ready to circumnavigate around the nearby asteroid and use it as an impromptu shield, when we emerge on the other side head all speed across the front of the enemy formation. Keep a distance of at least ten kilometers from the enemy ships as you do so. Cannon operator: make sure the beams are ready to fire at Carrier One when we pass by; hopefully we can cripple her, but if not we can at least drive her away from her own escort ships."

"Yes sir!" the addressed crew chorused.

The Helmswoman changed the ships pitch as needed, preparing to make the ship bolt when given the order. While the canon operator made sure no fault came to the beam cannons as he vented reserve plasma into the cannons system, making sure lots was available for consecutive beam blasts. The missile operator had already designated targets upon the three lead ships and waited for the fire order.

"Missile range reached." The radar tech informed.

"Mark!" Kira said immediately.

Both the _Eternal _and the enemy battle group immediately unloaded full salvos upon each other, sending hundreds of missiles streaking across space through the sparse few dozen kilometers. The _Eternal_ had emptied all her loaded missiles tubes, sending a grand total of 152 missiles toward the hostile warships. While the enemy warships, though having less missile capacity individually, together launched a combined wave of a 180 missiles towards them.

"Helms: go!" Kira ordered.

He watched as the holographic missile icons streaked towards their targets, the icons briefly intermixed for a moment as the passed each other, but none had collided due to the vastness of the combat zone. The _Eternal_ made good speed towards it's destination, currently accelerating at a rate faster then any other known warship of the time. Despite that however, Kira would not escape all the enemy missiles in time and did not want to leave anything to his CIWS system if it could be helped.

"Activate the defensive missile cluster!" he continued.

During the brief time Kira had waited, he had the time to set up a few clusters of inactivated missiles, much like the _Dominion _had done in the first war. This allowed him to have brief boosts in combat efficiency during battle, as he had more available firepower to call on as he needed it. His first missile cluster was used as a solution to the flaw to his bait and hook: immediate defense to hostile missiles. The _Eternal _had to take a more precarious position in space to lure the enemy ships in, but had they been closer to the asteroid intended to shield them the enemy ships would easily seen through the ploy and likely try a different approach. This way, the enemy thought they could best the _Eternal _in a mutual exchange; confident in their greater combined firepower, but the defensive cluster Kira had laid would protect the _Eternal _from the enemies lead missiles as it dashed for safety. Normally the enemy would have considered such a strategy; however the time it took to lay such traps was usually upwards of five minutes, reasoning that more then likely caused enemy to dismiss the idea. Thankfully the _Eternal_, being a warship designed with extensive use of missiles in mind, had a very efficient missile loading and deploying system that had allowed them to lay such traps in times as low as half a minute.

The cluster of 60 Dispar interceptors drifting just off the _Eternal's _aft side came to life and immediately rocketed away, heading off the 60 lead missiles as their name intended. The warheads collided in space, lighting up in dirty orange explosions as the weapons canceled ach other out and served their purpose. The remaining enemy missiles continued on, determined to strike at their target, but the _Eternal's_ speed bested them as the ship disappeared behind a large piece of drifting rock. The missiles guidance systems tried to make them veer around the target but it was too late, their inertia was too great and the missiles slammed into the asteroids surface, detonations sending thousands of half molten rock bits in every direction.

The enemy ships meanwhile had their hands full dealing with the _Eternal's _missiles, though luckily for them their close knit formation had caused the effectiveness of their CIWS systems to exceptionally more effective, creating a wall of explosive shells barring the path of Kira's own warheads. A few missiles had slipped through but most of them had been Dispar missiles, warheads designed to destroy more lightly armored targets such as other missiles or mobile suits, against warships the smaller missiles did nothing more then superficial damage.

When the enemy ships were just finishing off the missiles the _Eternal _reappeared on the other side of the asteroid it had hid behind and rocketed towards their foes. The warships immediately begin to swivel their weapons towards the _Eternal_, but Kira had other things in mind.

"Activate the flanking missile clusters!" He ordered.

For the enemy 32 more sudden contacts showed up on radar, all of them Parsifal heavy missiles; half of them on their portside, the other half on equally starboard side and dipped ventrally a ways. The ships were caught off guard by the sudden close range two-pronged attack, but like true soldiers adapted quickly and shifted their CIWS systems to compensate. Luckily again for the enemy, they had once again fended off all the _Eternal's _missiles, however barely.

"_So far so good._" Kira thought neutrally.

During the enemies brief distraction the _Eternal _had gotten the time it needed to skim in front of the enemy formation in relative safety. The pink warship had changed its pitch to face the enemy head on with the cannons, inertia still carrying the ship sideways at a rate of over 2000 kilometers an hour.

"Fire all beams cannons at Carrier One." Kira droned, trying once again to reign in his excitement and resisting the urge to shout.

All the capable cannons, including the METEORS, fired a mixed volley of green and pink plasma towards Carrier One. But rather the shoot consecutive blasts the cannons aim immediately shifted to the most likely place the enemy ship could evade to and fired again, trying to cut off that route. One more aim shift and shot later a total of three beam volleys were shooting towards Carrier One, and while a fourth was ready it couldn't be shot due to debris getting in the way. Of the three fired volleys, the first aimed at Carrier One's starboard flank, the second at her current location, and the third towards her portside flank. Being the 'top' part of the triangular formation Carrier One could not evade ventrally lest she crash into her own allies, but dorsally she was free and clear. Of course normally a depth charge would be used in such a situation since retaining formation was key, but at this distance the projectile wouldn't be able to launch and detonate quickly enough to save the ship that only had a few seconds reaction time. Seeing evasive action as the only option of survival, Carrier One's ventral thrusters fired up at full burn, sending the ship up and apart from her escorts and as it so happens the same direction as the _Eternal _was drifting.

Carrier One made sure that her thrusters were lit long a good enough to clear the chunks on debris that were in her path, and immediately sought out a route back to her escorts. But before the carrier could make any progress with that, the next thing they saw as they cleared the large debris chunk was the _Eternal_, not more then a few kilometers away.

And the _Eternal _still had a fourth volley to use.

Not giving the enemy much more then a whole second to realize their doomed situation, Kira gave the order to fire.

Five beams lanced out of the _Eternal's _cannons, crossing the short distance before the enemy captain could even say a word let alone an order. The superheated gases cut through ships hull as if it were nothing more then the space it passed through, leaving glowing gaping holes in their wake and sending small globules of molten metal straying away. Of the beams, two had cut through the ships center and hanger areas, doing the least damage. The third beam had pierced through the bridge tower, definitely scoring a critical hit and immediate disablement. The last two beams had hit the ships engines compartment at the back, and evidence of that was immediately shown. The back half of Carrier One immediately belched green and white flames from the holes the _Eternal's _beams had inflicted, plasma escaping from the engines. But even with the those holes serving as a pressure release the superhot gasses expanded to quickly, and the carriers back half exploded in a brilliant explosion of intermixed green, white, and orange flames. Chunks and shards of metal flew in every direction while the front half of the ship, looking akin to an arrowhead, drifted off into the debris spinning out of control.

"Carrier One is confirmed destroyed sir." Spoke Meyrin.

"Battleship Two is appearing to take up Carrier One's position on the line sir." The radar tech told him, "They are advancing in speed and are almost directly below us."

Kira looked at the battleships moving across the battle map, coming to block off the way he had used to escape the return fire of the ships when he had skimmed across their line and separated their flagship. They were quickly coming about the corner of the debris in their way that barred them from shooting the _Eternal_. Kira considered his options.

"_I could take the way Carrier One took here out, but even with the _Eternal's _speed the enemy ships have a shorter distance to cross and will likely cut off either side I go to. I should escape now, before they finish reloading their missiles."_

Seeing the enemy ships getting nearer and nearer to the corner, the main reason Kira even came to the debris field immediately jumped to his mind.

"Helms." Kira addressed, "Turn us around back the way we came. When the enemy tries to block the path, I want you to turn the ship broadside to them and let us drift straight through the middle of their formation while simultaneously firing the dorsal bow and the ventral aft thrusters."

The helmswoman visibly paused for a moment, Kira's words sinking in. She let out a deep breath and pushed a few buttons before putting her hands back on the steering wheel.

"Aye sir." She responded evenly, deciding to keep her professionalism, "We'll more then likely take a hit though if we expose ourselves in such a way."

"The _Eternal _has laminated armor lieutenant; it'll take more then a few shots for them to do any damage, and a few shots are all I plan to let them have." Kira reassured.

"Of course sir." She acknowledged, then started to move the ship.

"Weapons." Kira addressed once gain, "Prepare to activate METEORS."

And once again a split second pause.

"Activate sir?" the beam operator asked.

"Activate." Kira repeated calmly, yet steely.

Everyone on the bridge pretty much had a good idea of what Kira was trying to do now, but couldn't help but feel a little nervous attempting such a bold move. Nothing like it had ever been done before! Then again that wasn't really so surprising, in all ships ever produced by humanity, the _Eternal_ was currently the only one capable of performing such a feat.

Again the _Eternal's _rear engines fired up and propelled the ship towards their awaiting foes, mustering up a good speed until letting the engines cut off. The maneuvering thrusters then took their turn and turned the ship so that its starboard side faced that of the almost in position enemy formation. When that was done opposite thrusters on the _Eternal's _dorsal and ventral sides fired up, starting to spin the ship.

Battleships One, Two, and Three continued on unimpeded with the _Eternal's _movements, determined to cut them off. The formation changed its angle to face that of pink warship directly, and then drifted the rest of the way. When they were close enough to getting past the debris in their way they began to counter thrust to eliminate their momentum and begin a stand off between the pink ship. Eventually they arrived at their destination, slowly cutting the _Eternal _off, but when the lead warship that first cleared the debris fixed its cameras on pink ship saw a wild sight.

The _Eternal's _spin had increased dramatically when the enemy position had arrived at their position, looking a kin to a windmill blade spinning out of control. The _Eternal_ was currently spinning as fast as she safely could without putting too much G-forces on the ships crew inside. But despite the limitations on spin they could do, they had more then enough spinning velocity for what they needed it for.

The lead ship, Battleship Three, did the first thing that seemed logical in this situation: fire. It sent salvo of neon green beams at the _Eternal _and struck the ship dead on its side, but the ships advanced armor absorbed the mass amounts of heat in stride, spreading the temperature across the ships surface and ensuring no one structural weakness.

""No significant damage." The ships damage control officer rattled off, "Hull temperature is at178 degrees Celsius, well within tolerable limits."

"Good." Stated Kira, "Activate the METEORS then."

Plasma sprung from the tips of the METEORS barrels, but did not shoot towards the enemy. Rather the METEORS were activated in the function that Kira and Athrun had most often used them with their mobile suits.

As giant beam swords...

500 hundred meter long plasma blades were now attached to the _Eternal_, neon pink blades glowing and giving the warship a menacing and deadly look despite the strange colour. The look was only made even deadlier by the ships movements as the oversized beam swords spun with the ship and left a glowing and blurring wake, appearing much like a spinning glow stick at night, only much, much more frightening.

As the other two Nelson battleships came from behind the debris and in the way, they to fired their beam weapons at the _Eternal_, but it was too late. The pink ships present velocity and distance being too much and too close, the beams passed right by the pink warship to zero effect. The enemies CIWS shifted into the direction of the _Eternal_, but turrets did not make it.

The enemy could do nothing as but wait the couple agonizing seconds it took for the pink shipto pass through their formation. And once those two seconds had passed, the _Eternal_ blazed right through with deadly results.

Battleship Three was the first to be hit, and the beams swords did not disappoint. The blades passed right through the ships middle section, cutting the ship into three large sections. The pieces immediately began to tumble apart, propelled as they were by minor explosions from ruptured pipes spilling gases onto superheated metal.

Battleship Two was next, and the blades seemed to spare the already wounded ship a bit of mercy, meaningless as it was. Since the _Eternal _did not pass through the exact center of the formation the Nelson was saved being carved into pieces, but none the less the swords bit deep into the ship if not all the way through. Two large gashes were present on the ship, and secondary explosions immediately caused fire and metal to erupt from the wounds. Across the ships surface lights flickered on and off unevenly, before going completely dark as all power was lost. The catastrophically damaged ship started to list through space slowly, completely dead in the water and barely even holding together.

Battleship Three was the last to be hit, but was not any luckier because of it. She suffered having her aft section cut off, separating the bulk of the ship from the engine. The frontal section immediately went dark as all power was lost, gone with the engine, while the aft piece remained active. Green plasma spilled out of severed conduits that brought it to the beam weapons on the ship, now uncontained it started to melt the other piece of the ship briefly before the no longer contained gases quickly dispersed. After a few moments, engine pressure was reduced to the point where the gases could no longer spin the engines massive turbines and automatically shut down, and the aft section shut down as well. The two pieces starting drifting apart from each other, surrounded with rapidly cooling metal bits.

After the _Eternal _passed through the enemy ships position she immediately began to reign in her speed and spin, beginning an all stop.

"Status of enemy?" Kira asked.

"All enemy ships are confirmed destroyed sir." Meyrin informed him.

Kira looked at his battle map with satisfaction, now containing naught but the _Eternal_ and the environment that surrounded him, no red contacts in sight. At the maps edge however, two blue contacts fluttered to life.

"Receiving message." The communication office reported, "Allied ships _Ferris _and _Hymn of the Wind_ have now arrived."

"_And that all took place in just three minutes, before my backup even arrived…_" Kira thought, before returning to the tasks at hand.

"Deactivate the N-jammers and then send a fleet wide message to regroup at this position." Kira ordered, "And tell them to avoid the flare motor should they find it, it's more then likely a bomb."

"That, Commander, will be quite enough." Elyse suddenly spoke up from behind Kira, the first time the Admiral had said anything since before the battle began.

Before Kira could reply the lights on the bridge turned green for a moment and a brief loud alarm rang through the ship. All the screens on the bridge turned red for a moment and the words 'Simulation Ended' appeared in bold white letters. Quickly enough the screens and lights returned to normal as the ship ended its simulated battle, returning back to standard operations with the simulated battle over. A brief look out the window and Kira saw his ship floating alongside a PLANT in the Aprilius cluster, as well as the Nazca class ships _Hymn of the Wind _and the _Ferris_, the other two ships in simulation with him while the rest of the battle group patrolled the PLANTS defensive perimeter. Then remembering he was being addressed, turned his chair around so he could face Admiral Zender.

"I was unsure of the outcome of this simulation since you said you have never commanded a warship before, doubly unsure since you only had five days official training." She had begun, "I was mostly certainly not expecting to see what I just saw Commander, that was quite a remarkable performance. Are you sure you've never commanded a warship before?"

"I've never commanded a ship from the captain's chair before, but I do have experience with warship strategy and operations." Kira explained to her, "I was in command of Orb's 2nd fleet, the one that attacked Messiah and Requiem. I never personally commanded any ship, but I was apart of creating the fleets attack strategy, with the assistance of several others of course."

"Well that certainly explains a few things then." Elyse nodded, "I'm still impressed at how you learned the finer points of warship combat so quickly though."

"I…" Kira started to say, his mind internally going over data he had seen at Mendel. He shoved the thoughts from his mind immediately, knowing they were they irrelevant if not just downright depressing.

"I…?" Elyse repeated, looking at him with curious and slightly amused eyes.

"Have a knack for learning." Kira finished.

"It most certainly seems so." She replied, "It almost appears I've been to easy on you. I'll definitely include mobile weapons in the next exercise, rather then strict warship combat."

"Of course, even if only to give Meyrin something to do."

Meyrin immediately felt eyes on her at the CIC station, and turned to face Elyse and Kira.

"Yes, not a lot for CIC operator to do with no mobile suits to direct." Elyse said, "Must've been a pretty easy exercise for you."

"Well… Yes ma'am it was." Meyrin admitted, "I can't say I really minded though."

Elyse simply nodded in agreement, before turning back to Kira.

"I do believe that is enough for today then, let's get some rest. We'll be doing this all again tomorrow after all."

"Yes, I'd like that." Kira replied.

Kira released himself from the captains chair and vaulted himself towards the bridges exit, Elyse doing the same. When they exited they began heading the short distance to the officers quarters, before they made it far however Elyse spoke up.

"Well that's the first mistake you've made all day Commander." She said.

"I'm sorry?" Kira asked, looking at her with a confused expression.

Elyse gave him a small smile before nudging her head back in the direction in the bridge.

"You forgot to place someone in charge." She explained.

"Aw!" Kira huffed, then thanked her and headed back to the bridge, internally berating himself for such a simple oversight the entire way.

* * *

"So all the final preparations for both ceremonies are all concluded then?" Lacus asked the collected council.

They were just finishing up the final subject of the day and Lacus couldn't be anymore pleased about that fact. Not that she minded being in the council meeting of course, but she had been sitting in the same chair for over ten **hours** now and was quite looking forward to moving, not to mention eat something as well. All she had to do was listen for a couple more minutes, and keep her breathing shallow so that her stomach didn't gurgle.

"Yes." Ezalia informed her, "The only thing that isn't ready yet is that the ship elevator pneumatics haven't been calibrated at the military base for a mobile suits weight, but we cannot do that until the _Archangel _arrives with the Freedom so we can put it on the lift."

"Won't any mobile suit do? They generally all weight about the same."

"As we've said before Chairwoman Clyne." Ali said kindly, "We want this to be absolutely perfect for the populace, right down to all the subtleties."

"But won't that only cause a change of a few seconds at best?"

"That's correct." Orson answered for Ali.

Lacus was about to press the issue, but then thought better of it. She was hungry, and she wasn't going to prolong this meeting any further by asking pointless questions about minor issues. She changed the subject instead.

"What of the _Archangel _then?" she asked.

"The _Archangel_ has already sent word that they'll be here the day before the inauguration ceremony." Eileen told her, "We'll have lots of time to prepare the elevator for Commander Yamato's own swearing in ceremony."

"Anything else?" Lacus questioned.

"Yes actually." Eileen said, "They have also said that Chief Representative Cagalli Yula Athha is also on board, with the intention of viewing the coming ceremonies for political purposes as well as personal ones. Quite bold of her to admit any personal reasons I must say."

"Cagalli tells it how it is." Said Lacus, "She isn't much for beating around the bush."

"Well then, if no one else has anything to say then I do believe we're done here." Eileen finished.

No one said anything.

"Then this meeting is adjourned, see you next week everybody."

The collected council immediately rose from their chairs, some having small talk with others as they exited the council chambers. Lacus as well rose from her seat and headed for the door at brisk pace, when she was outside she immediately turned to Dearka, who had been waiting for her outside the chamber wit her armed security escorts.

"Where to ma'am?" He asked immediately.

"Home please." Lacus told him politely, "And please don't call me ma'am Dearka, it makes me feel old."

"Of course Chairwoman Clyne." He obliged.

Lacus let out a sigh and crossed her arms, tapping her fingers on her forearms patiently while giving him a neutral look.

"Of course Miss Lacus." He corrected himself.

"Thank you Dearka." Lacus said, smile returning to her face.

Dearka led the way through the capitol building and Lacus followed, anticipating getting home. Not to mention food.

* * *

**Well I do hope you enjoyed that, I worked really hard on this chapter to make it as realistic as I could. Though I'm also afraid I may have gone a bit overboard and made the warship battle a bit drawn out and boring, tell me what you think so I can fix it! I aim to please. Don't forgot to point out any other mistakes and stuff to, I'd appreciate it!  
**

**Don't forgot to leave any idea's you may have! You never know what I might like! And if I do like it, I'll let the contributor know I'm using it and they can be privy to a small spoiler, if that any encouragement.**


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